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THE NEWEST WAY ROUND 
THE WORLD 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



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The Autocrat of All the Russias 



THE NEWEST WAY 
ROUND THE WORLD 



CELESTE J. MILLER 



Illustrated from photographs gathered 
by the author in all parts of the World 



NEW YORK 

CALKINS AND COMPANY 

1908 



**° s 



pBRARY of CONGKE?sf 
Two Codes hecei,a. 

JUN 2 1908 

CLASS £ .v>'c, v ( 
2.0 /*7f 



COPYRIGHT 1908 BY 

CALKINS and COMPANY 
(All rights reserved) 






Published April, 1908. 
Printed in the United States of America. 



This volume is dedicated to the memory of 
my father, who taught me early in life to 
paddle my own canoe, and to the people, the 
world over, who have helped to make my 
various wanderings a happy remembrance. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Publishers' Foreword ....... xi 

I. Eastward Bound ; . >•> . . 15 

II. Moscow, the Holy City 23 

III. The Great Siberian Railway ..... 34 

IV. Siberia and the Siberians ...... 40 

V. Last Glimpses of the Russian Empire ... 54 

VI. " The Hermit Country " 69 

VII. Korea and the Koreans 81 

VIII. Along the Coast of China ...... 90 

IX. Shanghai, Queen of the East ..... 97 

X. Cities of the Yangtze River 107 

XI. On the China Sea 126 

XII. Bangkok, a Modernized City 137 

XIII. The Island of Singapore 146 

XIV. "The Land of Pajamas and Sarongs" . . 153 
XV. The Great Temple of Boro-Boedor . . . 168 

XVI. Java and the Dutch 184 

XVII. Last Glimpses of Java . . ... . . . 197 

XVIII. Saigon and Haiphong 211 

XIX. Hanoi, the Paris of the Orient .... 220 

XX. Back to China 229 

XXI. " The Land of the Rising Sun " 247 

XXII. Japanese Customs and Art 258 

XXIII. The Interior of Japan 269 

XXIV. Some Sacred Spots of Japan 282 

XXV. Farewell to Japan 296 

XXVI. Hawaii and Honolulu . 313 

XXVII. California — and the Home of the Mormons 326 

XXVIII. The Land of Fruit and Flowers .... 338 

XXIX. The Circle Complete 357 

vii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Autocrat of all the Russias Frontispiece s 

FACING PAGE 

A View of Bremen !8^ 

House 400 Years Old, Bremen 20 „ 

Statue of Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse 20 

Russian Sleigh and Drosky 24 

The Kremlin, Moscow 26 > 

The Great Czar's Cannon 26 

Cathedral of the Assumption, Moscow 28*f 

Gate of the Redeemer, Moscow 28 

Cathedral of St. Basil, Moscow 30 * 

Palace of Michael Romanoff, Moscow SO 

The English Lady 36 

The English Lady and her Dog 36 

Count Tolstoi 38^ 

Russian Peasants 42/ 

View of Irkutsk, Siberia 48 

A Greek Priest 56 

A Street in Blagovchensk, Siberia 60 v 

The Governor's Mansion, Habarovsk 60 

Vladivostok — Last Glimpses of the Russian Empire . . 64' 

The Prime Minister of Korea and His Official Fan . . 72/ 

The Postmaster of Seoul in Korean Street Dress ... 72 

The Emperor of Korea in Foreign Military Dress ... 78 

Tomb of the Emperor's Father 80 v" 

Korean Method of Smoothing Cloth 82 

Hats Worn by Korean Peasants 84* 

Costume of a Mourner 84 

South Gate, Seoul 88/ 

A Street in Seoul 88 

The Bund, Shanghai 100 

A Street in Chinatown, Shanghai ........ 100 

viii 



ILLUSTRATIONS ix 

FACING PAGE 

A Chinese Court of Justice 104V 

A Typical Opium Den in China 104 

The Emperor of China Sledging on the Lake in the Palace 

Gardens 110-/ 

The Emperor's Throne Room, Pekin .110 

Crushing Tea for the Chinese Market 114^ 

A Chinese Pagoda on the Yangtze River . . . . . 122/ 

Bound Feet Uncovered 126 v 

Beauty and the Beast 132 

Boat Life on the River, Bangkok, Siam . . . . . . 138 

Siamese Actors 138 

A " Wat/' or Temple, Siam .......... 140 / 

The King and Queen of Siam 142^ 

A Siamese Woman 144,^ 

The Sacred White Elephant of Siam ...... 146 

The Raffles Museum, Singapore 148 ■, " 

Javanese Men in Native Sarongs 156 

Gathering Cocoanuts in Java 164*' 

The Great Temple of Boro-Boedor ....... 172/ 

Sculptures on the Galleries of Boro-Boedor . . . . 176/ 

A Buddha from Boro-Boedor - . . . 180 

The Temples of Brambanan ., ., ., 192- 

Sculptures on the Galleries of Brambanan ...... 192 

202*- 

. . . 220^ 

.., . .. 220 

. . . 226 

. ■•■ . 232-- 

. ., . 238,. 

. 244 r- 



A Japanese Street Dancer 

The Great Bridge over the Red River, Hanoi 

The Railroad Station, Hanoi 

The Palace Central, Hanoi 

An Annamese Woman of Tonkin 
A Chinese Woman of the Better Class 

Happy Valley, Hongkong 

The Greeting, Japan 254 -^ 

Riksha Riding 254 

Japanese Cribs and Perambulators . .. ... . 260^ 

Out in a Storm 260 

Japanese Tea House and Garden ....... 272 x 

Geishas Dancing to Samisen Music . 272 

Japanese Postcard, Gonikwai Hotel 280- 7 

A Japanese Temple 284 

Torii, or Temple Gate ....,.; ; „ . . . . 284 
Geku and Naiku Temples . . .., L1J .j ..... 288 



x ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

The Sacred Rocks, Futarni, Ise 288 

Fujiyama, The Sacred Mountain ...... . . . 294 

The Emperor of Japan 304 

The Empress of Japan 308 

Princess Kaiulani, Hawaiian Islands . . . . . . 318 

Xawaiahao Church 322 

Funeral Procession of Princess Kaiulani 322 

Portrait of Brigham Young 330 

Brigham Young and His Wives 332 

The Bee Hive and the Lion House 334 

The Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City 336 

The Famous Cliff House, San Francisco 340 

The Seal Rocks Opposite the Cliff House ..... 344 

An American Indian of the West 348 

" Grizzly Giant," the Largest of the California Big Trees 352 

General View of the Yosemite Valley 356 

The Bridal Veil Falls 358 

The Yosemite Falls 360 

Glacier Point and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley . . >. 362 

Cloud's Rest Trail ,. . 364 

Chicago in 1852— Wolf's Point .., ;., . 366 



FOREWORD 

TN placing this book before the reading public of 
America and the English speaking people of 
foreign lands, we do so with a just appreciation of its 
great value as a record of one of the most unusual 
journeys ever undertaken by any one, as well as a 
volume of accurate information concerning parts of 
the earth little frequented by tourists. 

To the author belongs the distinction of being the 
first woman to have traveled over the Trans-Siberian 
Railway alone, and the first woman to visit the more 
remote parts of South America unattended by even a 
guide. Miss Miller always travels alone, and many 
times she has been for months by herself in countries 
where she could not speak the language ; yet she never 
met with an accident nor missed a train. 

Five times she has encircled the globe by devious 
routes, some of her journeys occupying two and three 
years ; and there is no continent and scarcely a country 
or group of islands of any importance she has not 
seen. The journey, of which this volume is a descrip- 
tive record, began at Chicago, June 16th, 1902, and 
continued through New York, Bremen, Berlin, Alex- 
androv, Warsaw, Moscow, Irkutsk, Stretensk, 
Blagovchensk, Habarovsk, Vladivostok, Korea, 



xii FOREWORD 

Chefoo, Shanghai, Hongkong, Siam, Singapore, 
Java, French Indo-China, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, 
Japan, Honolulu, San Francisco, and back again to 
Chicago. 

From this list it will be seen that the title " The 
Newest Way Round the World," is not fanciful, but 
literally true. The record of it is not put forth as a 
dry analytical treatise on the countries visited, their 
ethnology, economics and politics, but rather as an 
entertaining and instructive narrative of what this 
distinguished traveler saw and experienced — a narra- 
tive made doubly valuable by the reproduction of 
photographs gathered by the author in all parts of the 
world. 

The Publishers. 



RUSSIA AND SIBERIA 



The Newest Way Round 
the World 

CHAPTER ONE 

EASTWARD BOUND 

"TJ EPEATED attempts to analyze my feeling of 
•*■*' dread in undertaking a Russian trip have not 
been successful, and I am unable to say whether it is 
due to the immensity of the territory or to the military 
aspect of the country, or whether it is an overwhelm- 
ing sense of the unspellable, unpronounceable words. 
Whatever the cause, the feeling is universal among 
tourists. 

It is not unlikely that the laxity which prevails 
among the higher classes, especially in regard to the 
marriage law, strengthens this impression. Com- 
paratively few go to church for the marriage cere- 
mony and their contract lasts merely as long as it is 
agreeable. The divorce laws are extremely stringent ; 
a man after being divorced still owns his wife and can 
take her from any country, while the same is true if 
the wife obtains the divorce. The offspring of these 
unions generally go to the Foundlings' Home, and in 
consequence, so dense an ignorance prevails among 
the lower classes that only seventy-five per cent, can 
read or even know there is a country outside of Russia. 

As a preliminary to a Russian trip the first step is 



16 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

to obtain a passport and have it vised by the Russian 
Consul. This formality having been accomplished, 
a palatial train on the Michigan Central bore us to 
New York, where we took one of the largest trans- 
ports of the German Lloyds line. Many years of 
travel have proved the big transports superior to the 
fast steamers, because they move so steadily; indeed, 
the motion is almost imperceptible. 

Although we embarked in a pouring rain, the ardor 
of the passengers was but little dampened as, with the 
blare of two brass bands, we set sail. 

Our departure was cheered by a pleasant episode in 
the form of an ovation tendered to a fellow traveler, 
Madame Cappiani, formerly a well-known opera 
singer and now one of the best vocal teachers of New 
York. A number of her pupils had come down to see 
her off and after rendering selections from six or 
seven operas, they presented her with a beautiful 
diamond ring. 

There was a very amusing incident in connection 
with the Captain's dinner which was given to the pas- 
sengers just before we reached Southampton. The 
dinner was a really faultless performance and one of 
the passengers toasted our host in a most compli- 
mentary way, thanking him for the care he had exer- 
cised over us while we slept. Being unable to be 
present, as the ship was so near port, and wishing to 
express his appreciation of the courtesy with graceful 
ceremony, the captain selected a passenger who 



EASTWARD BOUND 17 

strongly resembled him, dressed him in his regimentals 
and sent him to thank the guests who were still seated 
at the table. The supposed captain was at first 
greeted with cheers, but when his identity was discov- 
ered he was hooted from the room. 

About two hundred disembarked at Southampton. 
We had hoped to see the naval parade in honor of the 
coronation of King Edward VII, which was 
scheduled to take place at that time, but the ceremony 
was postponed on account of the King's illness. 
However, there were about fifty men-of-war of 
various nations in the harbor, an inspiring spectacle 
one witnesses but once in a lifetime, and each played 
its own national air as we passed. 

Twenty-four hours later we landed at Bremer- 
haven, where the lack of system which characterizes 
the handling of baggage in foreign cities was amply 
demonstrated. The special train which was to carry 
us to Bremen was not in evidence nor did it appear 
for fully three hours, and to add to our discomfort 
the baggage had been dumped from the trucks in a 
state of utter chaos that added greatly to the unneces- 
sary confusion. When we finally reached Bremen 
at 1 a. m v there were no porters and no conveyances 
to the hotels. After some time six men were sum- 
moned and though I was fortunate in securing the 
services of one of them, it was three o'clock in the 
morning before I was able to retire. 

I have never visited Europe without experiencing 



18 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

upon landing, a sense of oppression and sadness at 
the ever present atmosphere of war as evidenced by 
the military aspect. It is soldiers everywhere; the 
only difference between the soldiers of the different 
countries being their uniforms and flags. The more 
civilized the country the larger the standing army; 
from which it would seem that civilization does not 
foster peace. Yet, in America, I never saw a soldier 
until I was a woman grown. 

But to return to Bremen, a beautiful city, and, at 
the time of my visit in July, specially charming and 
fragrant with flowers. It is a very old town on the 
banks of the river Weser, with a beautiful park run- 
ning through it and many places of interest. Of 
them all, however, none proved so interesting as the 
old cathedral built in the 11th century, famous for its 
mummies found in the Bleikeller or lead cellar, which 
are supposed to have been preserved by the peculiar 
atmosphere of the cellar, through the action of the 
quantity of lead used in constructing the tower and 
roof. 

The Rathaus, or City Hall, is a fine old Gothic 
structure built in the early part of the 15th century. 
It contains the famous Rathskeller with its immense 
oaken hogsheads that hold from 24,000 to 30,000 
bottles of wine and bear on their heads the old coat of 
arms of Bremen. Though the place is now used as a 
wine restaurant there are a number of rooms not 
shown to the public, each with some pecularity of its 




A View of Bremen 



EASTWARD BOUND 19 

own. There are many lovely parks and museums in 
Bremen. It has a remarkable government, presided 
over by two mayors, each with an independent admin- 
istration of his own. Bremen is six hours' ride from 
Berlin. As we journeyed there the only interesting 
things we saw were the famous peddling wagons of 
Germany, a sort of general merchandise store on 
wheels. 

We found Berlin very much improved since our 
last visit ; it is certainly one of the most beautiful cities 
in the world. Among the new buildings is the 
memorial church of Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse near 
the Zoological Gardens, that was dedicated in 1895 
and cost 5,000,000 marks. The Reichstagsgebaude, 
one of the most magnificent buildings in Berlin, is 
also new, having been dedicated by the present 
Emperor in the same year. 

The Hohenzollern Museum, presented to the city 
by the Empress Frederick, is most interesting, but it 
would be impossible in a limited space to give any idea 
of it, or of the other beautiful structures to be seen in 
Berlin. It is a very progressive city and growing 
larger every day; and the enterprise and " go-ahead- 
ness " of the present Emperor are seen on every side. 

At seven o'clock one evening we left Berlin at the 
Frederickstrasse Station en route for Moscow. It 
was a regular German express train the conductor of 
which was kind enough to go through the car and ad- 
vise us to go to bed, as it would be morning before we 



20 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

reached the Russian border; but to my surprise we 
were scarcely in bed before we were told that the next 
station would be Alexandrov, and that our baggage 
must be examined. At the station a customs house 
officer came on board and examined our passports ; the 
porters then carried our baggage to the customs house, 
the doors were locked and guarded by soldiers and we 
were imprisoned there for three hours while our bag- 
gage was being examined and turned over and over. 
One of the officers made a strenuous effort to read an 
English book which he found in my trunk and a new 
gown packed at the top was pounced upon as evidence 
that I was an importer going to Moscow to sell cloth- 
ing. I expressed myself in good strong English, — 
I could not speak Russian, — and my eloquence seemed 
to have a salutary effect, for they left me alone after 
that. 

In Berlin I had been told that we would change for 
the Russian railroad at Warsaw. The change was 
made, however, at a station called Blassa, some twenty 
miles beyond. A train was waiting for us and the 
first class passengers were transferred to a Russian 
car of very comfortable build, with a corridor running 
along one side of it. There was a dining car where 
meals were cooked and served in true Russian style, 
and our menu consisted of coffee, bread and butter 
for breakfast, two courses for luncheon (generally 
boiled meat followed by an omelet and coffee), while 
dinner consisted of four courses, — soup, beef, fish and 




^ 



p 

§ 




o 



o 
o 



!tj 



EASTWARD BOUND 21 

chicken, with dessert and coffee. The car was divided 
into two compartments so those who smoked could eat 
apart from those who did not. Later in my experi- 
ence I had reason to wish that the Siberian dining car 
had been arranged in the same manner. 

Besides myself the only Americans on the train were 
a bridal couple from Atlanta, Georgia, who told me 
they had studied the different languages for many 
years preparatory to their European trip. Thus far 
they had progressed on their journey only from 
Southampton to the point of which I speak; neverthe- 
less they continued to make themselves, and everyone 
else, miserable by their complaints of the inconven- 
ience of Russian travel, especially bewailing the im- 
perfections of the dining car. They expressed sur- 
prise that the Russians should have the audacity to 
invite them to such a table, and ostentatiously pro- 
ceeded to wash and wipe up the dishes with their hand- 
kerchiefs, before they commenced to eat. They 
announced that they had intended to make a tour of 
the world, beginning with the Siberian route, but had 
determined to take the first ship home from Bremen 
and never would they leave their country again. In 
fact, they " would rather travel in an American cattle 
train than under such conditions," and all this after 
years of preparation, while I felt I was traveling like 
a merchant prince in comparison with inconveniences 
experienced elsewhere. 

The country through which we passed was not very 



22 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

rich and the wheat and other cereals stood poorly on 
the ground. The villages consisted of small, window- 
less houses, thatched with straw, and in the midst of 
all their squalor one could see the inevitable Greek 
church painted with a green roof; indeed there is just 
such a church in every village, and very imposing it 
looks compared with its miserable surroundings. 

The people were evidently the poorest type of 
Russian peasants. I was informed that many of 
them had never tasted a piece of white bread and that 
cabbage soup was a luxury seldom realized. They 
came to the railroad stations peddling sour milk and 
mushrooms which were readily bought by the Russian 
passengers. 



CHAPTER TWO 

MOSCOW, THE HOLY CITY 

A FTER a long and tedious journey, we arrived at 
*^^ Moscow on the tenth of July, according to our 
way of reckoning, or the twenty-ninth of June, Rus- 
sian style, for they still use the old method of compu- 
tation there that makes a difference of thirteen days 
between the two calendars. It had been raining for 
weeks and the streets were covered with mud and 
water, for Moscow is one of the worst paved cities in 
the world, and, as the hotels were two miles from the 
station, our ride to the hostelry was anything but 
pleasant. 

Our carriage was a Russian drosky and our driver 
was attired in the dress worn by all public coachmen, 
a long blue coat reaching to the ground, a red belt 
with a flat, low crown, black oil cloth hat dipping in 
the front and back. These coachmen's coats are made 
all of one size, and in consequence, the small men are 
obliged to pad themselves to fill it up, and this gives 
them a fat, rotund appearance. They cut their hair 
square at the neck and wear the full beard required 
by law. Russian coachmen drive very fast. Few of 
them can read or write, but they are all very religious. 
Our driver stopped ten times in our two mile drive 

23 



M NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

from the station to cross himself and say a prayer be- 
fore the churches and shrines. 

We found Moscow much improved since our last 
visit in 1895. Many new buildings had been put up, 
among them three new banks, one of which is called 
the American Bank, but it is run by a lot of natural- 
ized Jews from America. There was a marked im- 
provement too, in the hotels of Moscow, for the 
Siberian route compels a stop and change of cars at 
this point. 

The Czar has tried to make the city one of the most 
attractive in the world; he intends to move all the 
museums there as soon as the buildings can be com- 
pleted. Three months in each year His Majesty 
spends in Moscow, a thing that had not been done 
by other Czars in years. I am told that his royal 
father never entered the city after his coronation, 

Moscow has a population of 1,360,000 people. 
There are 460 churches, 900 chapels and 29 convents, 
18 of which are for women and 11 for men. It is cer- 
tainly one of the most religious cities in the world; I 
know of no other place, unless it is South America, 
where the people are so constantly blessing and cross- 
ing themselves as they do in Moscow. 

The city is built on a hundred hills, and its countless 
domes and spires with their curious shapes and color- 
ings of blue, green and gold, make it resemble greatly 
the cities of Turkey and Egypt. The greatest attrac- 
tion, however, and one of its most beautiful sights, 





Russian Sleigh and Drosky 



MOSCOW, THE HOLY CITY 25 

is the Kremlin, with its wonderful coloring, its old 
walls and its holy Gate of the Redeemer, over which 
hangs a portrait of the ikon (or Virgin) who, it is 
thought, saved the city from the bombardment of 
Napoleon. What history this ikon could unfold 
could she only open her mouth! A policeman is 
stationed at this gate to see that every one who passes 
through it takes off his hat. 

Near at hand is the great bell, famous the world 
over as being the largest in existence. It weighs 
over two hundred tons and was broken when taken 
from the mold. It was not made to ring, however, 
for the gold and silver necessary to produce sound 
were omitted in its manufacture. This dumb and 
voiceless bell recalls, by force of contrast, the big bell 
of Mongoon in Burmah, the second largest in the 
world. Thirty persons can stand under its base while 
its sound, because of the great quantity of gold and 
silver it contains, is most musical and can be heard for 
many miles. 

But to return to the Kremlin. A fitting com- 
panion to the big bell is the Great Czar's cannon, cast 
at the same time and, like the bell, made only for 
show; and a beautiful piece of work it is. Here are 
also the cannon taken from Napoleon, and the famous 
statue of Alexander the Third. The finest view of 
the Kremlin is obtained from the Kamenny bridge 
over the river Moskva. The tower of Ivan Velike, 
near which stands the big bell, has an interesting 



26 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

museum containing the robes of the patriarchs, and 
from its summit there is a fine view of the surround- 
ing country. 

Not far from here is the Cathedral of the Assump- 
tion, where all the czars since Peter the Great have 
been crowned. When I visited this church, just be- 
fore the coronation of the present Czar, the walls 
within and the domes without were being covered with 
gold and the building is still magnificent with this 
shining metal. At the time of which I speak I stood 
upon the spot where the Czars are crowned ; or rather 
where they crown themselves, for no one is considered 
exalted enough to place a crown on a Czar's head. 
Now, one is not even allowed to look upon the spot, it 
is considered so sacred. 

The Assumption contains the tombs of the patri- 
archs, the first rulers of Russia. The ikon in this 
church has the most magnificent crown of any in 
Russia, a crown that cost over 2,000,000 rubles. The 
ikon herself is a miserable black daub. I was assured 
that none of the ikons are painted by human hands; 
they all appear miraculously upon the canvas, thereby 
forcing one to the irreverent conclusion that the 
celestial artist cannot be a master. 

Near the Assumption is the Church of St. Michael, 
with its tombs of the first Czars of the Romanoff s, and 
the treasury, with its collection of all the magnificent 
things once the property of former rulers. Indeed, 
the mind is appalled at the array of splendor and it is 




The Kremlin 




The Great Czar's Cannon 
Views of Moscow 



MOSCOW, THE HOLY CITY 27 

Impossible to single out or particularize when each 
article would be a theme for a chapter. Another of 
the sights of Moscow is the old Romanoff palace, witK 
its strange coloring, its low pointed ceilings and its 
small windows. 

Of the many churches in Moscow there is none more 
noticeable than St. Basil's, owing to the peculiar con- 
tour of its domes and its many little chapels with low 
pointed ceilings. It was built in the sixteenth century 
for Ivan the Terrible, during whose reign Siberia be- 
came a Russian possession, and it was one of the few 
buildings that escaped when Napoleon bombarded the 
city. 

The Church of Our Saviour is the finest of the new 
sacred edifices. It stands on a hill and can be seen 
from all over the city. It is said to have cost more 
than any other church in Russia. The interior is 
decorated with immense oil paintings, the work of 
Verestchagin, at a cost of 50,000 rubles each. 

One of the never changing sights and probably 
one of the saddest in the world, is what is called the 
Thieves' Market in Moscow. As a matter of fact, 
it is a place where the very poor, those who are out of 
work, congregate, pathetically waiting for some one 
to hire them. Most of them have a long time to wait 
for I found two or three hundred there, about as many 
as were there when I last visited Russia, five years 
before. There they stood in the pouring rain, their 
only rations being some black bread and water fur- 



28 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

nished by a neighboring convent, which also tried to 
shelter them, but only a few could be accommodated. 

I drove out of the city to the old convent of St. 
Simon to see the accumulation of magnificent robes 
worn by the priests of Russia eight hundred years ago. 
For over two hours two priests were engaged in 
spreading before me these splendid garments; won- 
derful, priestly hats, centuries old, the remarkable 
enameling of which jewelers from all over the world 
have come to examine, but it is a lost art and cannot 
be reproduced. 

At this convent there are half a dozen ikons with 
magnificent jeweled crowns. The convent was un- 
dergoing extensive repairs at the time, making it 
necessary to remove the treasures to another part of 
the building which was quite insecure. I asked the 
priest if he was not afraid to have so much wealth in 
so poor a building. He was greatly surprised and 
replied that there was not a man, woman nor child in 
Russia, however destitute, that would touch them for 
they were as sacred as the Saviour himself. 

Another point of great interest in Moscow is the 
Sparrow Hills, three hours' drive from the city, cele- 
brated as the place where Napoleon spent the night 
before he entered the city bringing fire and desolation 
with him. On a clear day the view from these hills 
is glorious. Moscow with its many domes sparkling 
in the sunlight, lies before you, and the Kremlin's red 
walls and multitudinous towers are distinctly visible. 




^ 



^3 







o 



53 



O 



MOSCOW, THE HOLY CITY 29 

In the old part of Moscow, or what is called the 
Chinese town, there are many old buildings, among 
which is the palace of the first Czar, Michael Roman- 
off. It is a queer little building with its small rooms, 
low, peculiarly shaped ceiling and strange colorings. 
Some of the clothing and other belongings of this 
Czar are exhibited there. 

It may be proper to state in this connection that 
this part of the city, though called the Chinese town, 
is not and, never was, the residence of Chinamen. 
After the wall was built it was thought to resemble a 
Chinese wall, and so it was that the name came to be 
applied to that quarter. I know of no large city 
where there are so few Chinamen; there are only a 
few in business as tea importers. 

In the many museums of Moscow I saw nothing 
more curious than an iron cage standing at the top of 
the stairway in the Romanoff museum. This cage is 
about two feet square by six feet high, and when in 
use was chained securely to the wall. The conductor 
of the museum informed me that it had been used by 
the royal family as a means of punishment for their 
servants, and that it was so used less than forty years 
ago. The unfortunate victim was made to stand in 
it for days and it was impossibe for him to change his 
position; his sufferings were too terrible to contem- 
plate. 

Of all the ikons there is none so sought after as 
the one called St. Iberia, the great ikon healer that 



80 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

visits thousands of poor sufferers every year. At ten 
o'clock every morning in the year a high mass is said 
for this lady, who is in a magnificent frame with a 
crown set with all kinds of precious stones on her head. 
After the mass a large black coach draws up before 
the door with four black horses and a coachman in 
livery, and two bags of cotton saturated with holy oil 
suspended from each corner of the frame. The ikon 
is deposited in the coach which then starts on its 
rounds. 

Those who wish some of the cotton send in their 
names, and as they have to pay well for this sanc- 
tified bit of commodity, there is a great revenue con- 
stantly coming in. I asked how long this ikon had 
been in the healing business and was told that no one 
knew; she was supposed to be of Spanish origin and 
brought centuries ago to Russia. 

There are few American goods sold in Moscow. I 
was told there were some American locomotives used 
on the railroads but I did not see them. The only 
thing I found from America was the new riding 
gallery, presented by the Governor General of Mos- 
cow. It is said to hold from 15,000 to 20,000 people 
and is used in the summer as a bicycle school, no one 
being allowed to ride a wheel in Moscow unless he is 
a graduate from this school and carries its diploma in 
his pocket. Without this choice document he will be 
put in prison and fined heavily. In the winter time 
the building is used as a drilling place for soldiers. 



MOSCOW, THE HOLY CITY 31 

The iron work was made in Chicago and the building 
was constructed entirely after American ideas. 

I learned that a great many bales of American cot- 
ton were shipped into Russia to supply the numerous 
cotton manufacturers of Moscow. There is only one 
car line in the town and this is run by horses, for it is 
deemed unsafe to use electricity in the city, though 
there are electric cars in the suburbs. 

In order to see the life of Moscow one must visit 
the great park situated not far from the city. Here 
is the great race course of Russia, and here it is that 
the wealthy Russians go to enjoy themselves, staying 
there all night and often for days, eating, drinking 
and gambling. 

The shops of Moscow are disappointing. One sees 
no such goods as at Paris or at St. Petersburg, which 
is the real capital of Russia, for the Czar spends most 
of his time there, and all the style and splendor of 
Russia are to be found in that city. 

I was unfortunate in the time of my arrival in 
Russia, for two holidays coming in succession meant 
that I could attend to no business in connection with 
my Siberian trip until they had passed. Of course, 
I tried to obtain information at the hotel, but failed 
utterly. There was not even a time table there. I 
thought my best plan would be to go to the head 
officials of the road for information regarding its 
completeness, but even this failed me ; for after wait- 
ing a long time I was ushered into the presence of a 



S2 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

man six feet in height, with a uniform that denoted 
his high rank and a cold unbending demeanor that 
seemed to say " Why do you trouble me? " When I 
had stated my errand, he rose to his feet and with a 
magnificent wave of his hand and an ominous shake of 
his head, informed me that he knew nothing of the 
road beyond Irkutsk, as that was the end of the 
Russian part of the great Siberian Railway. How- 
ever, he referred me to the office of the Internationale 
des Wagon Lits Sleeping Car Company, which I 
found was really the place to go for information and 
tickets. 

At this office good English is spoken and one can 
obtain a time table in French, which is easily de- 
ciphered, but even there I could obtain no informa- 
tion regarding the completeness of the road beyond 
Irkutsk. However, the time table they gave me in- 
cluded the whole road and it seemed to fit together so 
nicely I thought I should have no trouble. It was 
somewhat discouraging to meet with such perfect 
silence on the part of high officials, but I had learned 
through many years of travel not to be discouraged 
by adverse reports, even though I was going around 
the world by way of a railroad not yet completed. 
They were kind enough to tell me at the railroad 
offices that I was the first American woman to go over 
the Great Siberian Railway alone, and that they knew 
of no Russian woman who had gone over the route 
unattended. 



MOSCOW, THE HOLY CITY 33 

From Moscow to Irkutsk there are three express 
trains weekly of the Internationale des Wagon Lits 
Sleeping Car Company, built after the regular 
Russian style. There is also a daily train of the 
Russian build which makes the same trip, but it runs 
very slowly, and carries first, second and third class 
passengers but no dining cars. 



CHAPTER THREE 

THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY 

JULY 19th I left the hotel at 8 p. m. for the Trans- 
** Siberian Railway station, which I found to be a 
large well-appointed building. As I already had my 
ticket, the next step was to have my baggage regis- 
tered and weighed. The first class passengers are 
allowed about thirty-six pounds free; all over that 
must be paid for. Arrangements having been com- 
pleted I started for the train, the last one on the oppo- 
site side of the station, and found it easily distinguish- 
able from all the others, for it was a blaze of light. 
All the express trains are composed of one first class, 
two second class coaches, dining car and baggage car, 
all lighted by electricity. It was the regular Russian 
Express, divided into compartments, with a corridor 
running along one side of the car. 

In the first class coach the compartments are so 
arranged that they can be occupied by only two per- 
sons, while in the second class coaches four can be 
accommodated in each compartment. The dynamos 
that light the train, the kitchen, the bath room and the 
barber shop, are located in the baggage car. The 
library, with books in German, French and Russian, 
is in the dining car, where there is also a piano. 

34 



THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY 35 

As I went through the train I was struck with the 
amount of baggage in each compartment. It seems 
the Russians are disposed to cheat the railroad out of 
extra baggage charges, and in consequence they make 
themselves very uncomfortable by piling baggage in 
every available space in their compartments. Yet 
the baggage rates are not high; on the contrary, I 
know of no other place in the world where they are so 
cheap. My baggage, weighing about four hundred 
pounds, cost me for the entire trip only twenty dollars 
of our money. 

My compartment was very clean. It was lighted 
by electricity and there was a drop light which found 
a resting place over the window during the day, while 
at night it could be set on a table. A very ingenious 
contrivance are these tables for they are capable of be- 
ing transformed into step ladders. 

As most of the passengers had arrived I naturally 
looked about me to see who my fellow travellers were 
to be. It was evident that most of them were army 
officers, and that they had partaken rather freely of 
champagne. A large proportion of their number was 
in a decidedly happy state, and it was not long before 
I had an introduction to one of these military men in a 
way that was anything but pleasant. On entering 
the car he mistook my apartment for his own and fell 
headlong at my feet. Greatly startled, I ordered him 
out of my room; but the words had scarcely fallen 
from my lips when I heard a voice of a woman, who 



36 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

spoke in Russian to the man and immediately after 
addressed me in good English. " Madame," she ex- 
claimed, " you are English. I heard you speak 
sharply to this officer — I came at once to warn you. I 
am sure he will be able to pick himself up directly. 
Be very careful not to offend him, for Russians never 
forgive insults. You are alone and these men will be 
with you all the way. You are probably not aware 
that it is not considered good form for a Russian to 
leave home except in a state of intoxication." 

I was so struck by the little lady that I forgot the 
officer, who managed to pull himself together and 
retire. She was dressed in a beautiful gown of 
Parisian make, a jaunty hat and little, high heeled, 
Parisian boots. Her sprightly manner, her willowy 
form and her use of my mother tongue, made her ap- 
pear to me a good angel sent by kind Providence to 
conduct me through my long journey over the Great 
Siberian Railway. Seating herself by my side she 
remarked : 

"I am so glad to find another lady beside myself 
in the first class coach. I was afraid that Marie, my 
maid, and I would be the only women; but then I 
have my two pets with me, would you like to see 
them?" 

Before I could answer, she gave a low whistle, and 
with the rustle of a chain, two dogs came bounding in. 
I shall never forget the beautiful white creatures, one 
a Spitz and the other a fox terrier. Pointing to the 





o 
g 



go § 

5 1 



THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY 37 

Spitz, she said, " This is my favorite, he is so white, 
with such a long silky coat. His name is Tomaska 
Alexandervich. He has won many prizes. I gave 
$500 in gold for him, but that is very little, for he is 
of the purest blood of his kind in Russia. The fox 
terrier is also a pure blood and a prize winner; his 
name it Tuttu Mohanovich. I am traveling them on 
children's first class tickets." 

The dogs made friends with me at once and jumped 
up on the seat behind me. Just then we heard the 
station bell ring, then stop and ring again, until there 
were three distinct rings, from two to three minutes 
apart, then a loud whistle from the engine and the 
guard hurried through the car to see that the pas- 
sengers were all in their places. Another whistle, and 
we rolled out of the great, white station of Moscow, 
on our way across the vast domain of the Russian 
Empire. 

As I looked back to take a last farewell of my sur- 
roundings, the scene before me was indescribable. 
The last rays of the setting sun still lingered in the 
west while an almost full moon was rising in the east, 
both shedding their wondrous light over the gilded 
domes and spires of old Moscow; while the air was 
soft and balmy and laden with the perfume of many 
flowers. 

My new-made friend and I sat long, watching the 
fading landscape, until she turned to me and said, 
" To-morrow we shall be at Tula and Tolstoi lives but 



38 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

a few hours' drive from there. Have you ever visited 
him?" 

" No," I replied; " that is my only regret at leav- 
ing Russia." 

" That is a pity," she exclaimed, " for he is the 
most noticeable figure in Russia. He is the only 
Russian who has dared to express his thoughts and 
send them broadcast over the Empire, though they are 
not in accord with the church nor the government. 
Many of his writings have been suppressed, and he 
has been excommunicated because of his liberal views. 
He is what I should call a Deist. You are aware of 
his peculiarities : he differs so from all other Russians 
of his class, dressing in a simple Russian blouse and 
even going barefoot, or wearing shoes as common as 
those of the poorest peasant. He never drinks any 
kind of liquor nor does he smoke; and in appearance 
he is precisely like the pictures you see of him. When 
you meet him he greets you with a warm clasp of the 
hand and makes you feel at once like an old acquaint- 
ance ; and then his voice is so soft and low, his manner 
so charming, you soon forget that you are in the pres- 
ence of one of the most profound thinkers and writers 
of the present day." 

The guard now appeared to prepare the beds for 
the night and showed us how to fasten our doors se- 
curely, by means of a very ingenious catch which 
allowed the air to enter through an opening of almost 
two inches and yet prevented an intruder from fore- 




Count Tolstoi 
Or Leo, the Son of Nicholas 



THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY S9 

ing an entrance without breaking down the door itself. 
I asked if it were necessary always to fasten the door 
at night, and he replied that all Russians lock their 
doors and that both men and women always carry fire- 
arms. The revolver most in use, he said, was one of 
long range which did its work well, though it often 
hit a person for whom the shot was not intended, be- 
cause of the distance which it drove the ball. 

The English lady and her dogs now took their de- 
parture for the night. "Good night!" she said. 
" We shall be together many days and I will tell you 
much about Russia and its people." 



CHAPTER FOUR 

SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 

I' COULD not but notice how little motion there 
was to the train and how smooth the road bed was. 
This was particularly true of the Russian part of the 
road where the time made was about twenty -five miles 
an hour, and, as there is a great scarcity of coal in 
Russia, the engine was fired with wood and kerosene, 
so there was no disagreeable smoke. I found some 
difficulty in sleeping at first, it was so light. The sun 
rose at half past two in the morning and continued all 
the way, for the country through which the railroad 
passes is far to the north and near the Land of the 
Midnight Sun. 

The road runs in almost a straight line from Tula 
across Russia to the Ural Mountains. The country 
is a vast plain as far as the eye can reach and resembles 
the great American prairies. Most of the land is well 
cultivated and there were thousands of acres of wav- 
ing grain and grass that were being harvested, but 
there was no hum from the reaping and mowing 
machines, for the Russians have not adopted modern 
methods of farming with machinery to any extent. 
The implements still in use date back as far as the 
Russian Empire. I asked a Russian gentleman why 

40 



SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 41 

the country did not adopt modern farming machinery, 
and he replied that Russians did not as yet believe that 
new methods were necessary, but when the proper 
time for them came, her own inventions would as- 
tonish the world as her railroading had done. 

At every station on the entire line stand immense 
piles of wood. In Russia and Siberia there is no com- 
plaint of the scarcity of this fuel such as one hears in 
other parts of the world ; indeed in many parts of the 
Russian Empire it is burned to get rid of it. 

It is hard to realize that one is in a country so old 
as Russia, and that it has been settled for so many 
centuries. It gives the impression of a new country 
with huge forests that have just begun to hear the 
ring of the woodman's ax. 

On entering the dining car for my breakfast I was 
invited to a seat at the English lady's table. "We 
will have the regular Russian breakfast," she said. 
" It consists of stock and chi, mosler, bulaco, milaco, 
sucre and some jam for our tea." 

" I am curious to see what the waiter will bring," 
I remarked, " for these names are all new to me." 

When the breakfast appeared I found that 
" stock " is the glass from which to drink the tea, 
" chi " is the tea itself, " bulaco " is bread, " mosler " is 
butter, while " milaco " and " sucre " are milk and 
sugar. This was my first lesson in the Russian lan- 
guage and after that I could order my own breakfast. 
When my tea was poured I put into it two teaspoons- 



42 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

ful of jam and strange to say, it was excellent; much 
better than with lemon. The Russians use lemon, 
cognac brandy and jam in their tea, but jam is con- 
sidered superior to the other two. 

As we sat at the table the conversation turned on 
our respective destinations. To our mutual pleasure 
we discovered we were both bound for Vladivostok, 
and congratulated ourselves that neither would have 
to be alone on the long journey. We then introduced 
ourselves. 

" I am Gertrude, the daughter of Robert," said my 
companion. " The terms Mr., Mrs. and Miss are 
never used in Russia; instead you are designated by 
the first name of your father as his daughter or son as 
the case may be. I am going to join my husband, 
Serges Latkin, who has been appointed head of the 
customs in Manchuria. He is a Russian and I am 
English. We were married in the church and our 
marriage was recorded, but very few Russians go to 
the church to be married ; they simply live together as 
long as they are congenial. This may be for a life- 
time or it may be for a few months. The divorce 
laws are to blame for this to a great degree. To 
avoid all complications the power is often taken out 
of the priest's hands so the marriage laws can be 
regulated to please the contracting parties." 

Our meal was about finished and the English lady 
told the waiter to bring in the " shot." I supposed 
we were to be served with some ammunition, the 




Russian Peasants 



SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 43 

Ttussians are so addicted to carrying all kinds of fire- 
arms, but to my great surprise, I found it was the 
bill for our breakfast. 

We found the food on the train of a good quality 
and cheap, a table d'hote dinner of four courses cost- 
ing only one ruble, which is sixty cents of our money. 
The air was so invigorating that we soon had enor- 
mous appetites and ate up not only all the food on 
the train but cleared out all the provisions in the 
restaurants at the stations along the way. We 
bought bushels of cucumbers and strawberries from 
the peasants and ate them between meals, paying 
no attention to the warning of the doctors that we 
would surely have the cholera when we reached Man- 
churia. 

The dining room was always full of tobacco smoke, 
but this is the case in most foreign countries and one 
has to get used to it. Russians smoke continually 
and puff after every mouthful. There were a number 
of doctors going to Manchuria, and they provided 
themselves with 19,000 cigarettes to last them through 
their four months' stay ; but by the way the cigarettes 
vanished I am sure that most of them had been con- 
sumed before Manchuria was reached. 

I learned to eat all the Russian dishes, though at 
first I was a little prejudiced against them, and 
cabbage soup with sour cream in it grew to be very 
delicious, while fish soup, with nearly a whole fish in 
it, soon tasted extremely palatable. Young pig with 



44j NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

sour cream gravy is not at all bad, and then there 
is a rather mild but very refreshing drink, called 
" quash," which is made from fomented black bread, 
and tastes like yeast or hop beer. 

Soon after we started the English lady's pet dogs 
became car sick. She had not expected this mishap 
and had neglected to bring any remedies with her. 
The railroad company has a resident physician at al- 
most every station for the accommodation of those of 
its patrons who may be taken ill on the journey, but 
it had failed to be so considerate of its first class canine 
passengers, so it was decided to try starvation as a 
remedy. This worked like a charm and in a short 
time the dogs were as chipper as ever but they were 
ravenously hungry. Tuttu, the fox terrier, slipped 
away from Marie, the maid, and seeing the dining car 
door open darted into it. Seated at one of the tables 
was a stiff old general who looked as though he had 
never smiled in his life, and who always appeared in 
white gloves. The waiter had just placed before him 
a juicy steak, when suddenly there was a flash of black 
and white, and before the astonished officer could 
realize what had happened, the fox terrier had leaped 
upon the table, seized the steak and disappeared with 
his booty in the twinkling of an eye. Insulted dignity 
and disappointed appetite lent wings to the great 
man's feet as he joined the waiters in hot pursuit of 
the culprit, and it is needless to say that the dining 
car door, forever after was shut against the fox 



SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 45 

terrier. Naturally, the occurrence was considered a 
huge joke by the passengers; nevertheless, Tuttu's 
thieving propensities became well known to us for he 
helped himself to everything that came within his 
reach. 

Entering my compartment one day I found my 
carryall unstrapped and a box of biscuits gone. I 
supposed some thief had stolen them, but on examin- 
ing the straps I found them dented with the marks 
of a dog's teeth and still so wet that I had no diffi- 
culty in determining who was the robber. Yet the 
dogs were great favorites with all the passengers. 
Handsome, well-kept dogs are generally petted and 
admired and attract as much attention from strangers 
as pretty well-dressed children. At each stopping 
place the dogs jumped out on the platform with a 
fierce challenge to all canine comers. Marie, the 
maid, with vain efforts to corral them, would tearfully 
declare her intention of taking the next train back to 
St. Petersburg, and many times a day the English 
lady counted out the money necessary for her return 
but her resolution would gradually weaken as the next 
station was approached. Often, however, it required 
the combined efforts of all the passengers and the 
train crew to round up the dogs and pacify Marie, 
making a delay of a few minutes, more or less. And 
so the days passed, one as like another as were the 
different stations along the route. 

The landscape was always one vast steppe with here 



46 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and there a grove of white birch trees, until at last 
we reached the Volga, a wide spreading river crossed 
by the great Alexandroski bridge, a splendid piece 
of workmanship. It is a mile in length and has 
thirteen enormous spans. 

Then came the town of Samara and the bridge 
over the Ufa River, after which we commenced to 
ascend the Ural Mountains. These are disappoint- 
ing, for they are nothing more nor less than a series 
of foothills, two or three hundred feet in height, 
wooded to the top with fir and pine trees. They form 
the boundary line between Russia and Siberia. 

Zlataoust was the next place of interest, surrounded 
by bare, rocky hills, some of them with beautifully 
colored faces. Here is situated the big iron mine and 
there are a number of small booths at the station, 
where Russian sheathed knives, with beautiful chased 
blades, and other curios are sold. Among them was 
the coat of arms of the Siberian Railway, an anchor 
crossed by an upward turning ax. 

After leaving Zlataoust we watched with great in- 
terest for the monument that marks the boundary line 
between Russia and Asia, but after our expectations, 
it seemed insignificant. If it had not been pointed 
out to us we would not have noticed the twelve-foot- 
high stone, its reddish base surmounted by a pointed 
yellow sandstone column. Chelyabinsk, the next 
stopping place, is a pretty town situated in the Ural 
Mountains. The booth-keepers at this station had 



SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 4T 

curios made from green malachite, rock crystal, dif- 
ferent colored jasper, and lapis lazuli. 

We were now in Siberia; and after leaving Chely- 
abinsk the train slowed down to fifteen miles an hour 
as it crossed the Great Siberian plain, which is car- 
peted with flowers that remind one of the great plains 
of Morocco except for the difference in the flora, the 
one being tropical, the other hardy and very much like 
the flowering plants of North America. The coun- 
try is almost a dead level as far as the station at Taiga, 
where the passengers change for Tomsk. 

Our train now began to use coal for fuel, for we 
were in a country rich with great mineral resources of 
silver, gold, iron, coal and copper. We crossed many 
bridges, spanning the great rivers that flow from the 
south across Siberia, and after leaving Taiga the 
country was well wooded but not well settled. As we 
approached Irkutsk, however, it seemed better popu- 
lated and some of the land well cultivated. The hills 
were much higher than those we had passed and beau- 
tifully green to the very top, with sparkling streams 
running through the valleys. 

The station at Irkutsk is two miles from the town 
and across the river. So far there had been no un- 
pleasant features in our long journey of 3372 miles, 
so we were somewhat unprepared for a disagreeable 
experience. When we arrived at Irkutsk it had been 
raining for several days and the streets were a foot 
deep with mud and water. Fortunately, it was still 



48 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

light ; so, after securing a drosky, we crossed the long 
bridge made of boats and started for the hotel. There 
was a small toll to pay and it was then that the un- 
pleasant part of our ride began. The horse started on 
a brisk trot, and things soon became exciting. The 
streets were filled with little hills and hollows, that 
almost made our shallow little carriage tip over at 
every turn of the wheels. The more we begged the 
driver to go slow the faster he drove, until we were 
plastered with mud. In the excitement both dogs 
jumped out into the mud puddles and they, as well as 
ourselves, were a pitiful sight to behold. But the 
worst was not yet. When we arrived at the hotel there 
was not a room to be had. It was now getting dark, 
and moreover, ladies traveling alone do not appeal to 
the sympathy of the Siberian hotelkeeper. However, 
a friend in need was at hand, for it so happened that 
on the train with us was a Siberian by the name of 
Vassili ; and eight or ten other names I could not pro- 
nounce. He was met at the train by a friend, an old 
gentleman, who, on discovering that we could not be 
accommodated at the hotel, insisted that we should rest 
at his home while a servant searched for temporary 
quarters. We were regaled with an elaborate dinner, 
after which the servants took our dogs and handbags 
to rooms which they had secured for the night and 
came the next day to help transfer us to the hotel 
where rooms had been vacated. I had expected more 
or less trouble for I had heard that Russians were very 




A View of Irkutsk from the Railroad Station 



SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 49 

uncivil to foreigners; but I was never treated better 
in my life, nor did I ever meet people more courteous 
and hospitable than the subjects of the Czar. 

The Siberian gentleman, Vassili, said to be the rich- 
est man in Siberia, insisted upon showing the whole 
party the sights of his country. Never have I 
seen such generosity. He took everyone, including 
the train crew, to the circus, the theaters, the open- 
air concerts in the parks and the coffee gardens; 
moreover, he treated us all and all the friends 
whom he chanced to meet, to champagne, and insisted 
that nothing else should be drunk. Russian etiquette 
requires that a gentleman shall not stop drinking un- 
til he is inebriated, and it certainly takes a large 
quantity of liquor to accomplish this result. 

In one of the coffee shantas I met Mr. Churchill, 
the artist, who made illustrations for the New York 
papers during the war in the Philippines. He had 
in his possession a number of medals bestowed in rec- 
ognition of his work, one of which was from Admiral 
Dewey. When I saw him he was drawing pastel 
pictures blindfolded, and he did his work so well he 
was selling them at the rate of a thousand a week. 
After exhibiting his artistic skill to his Russian audi- 
ence he proceeded to execute a clown dance, which 
was not well received, and I do not wonder, for it was 
the worst performance I have ever witnessed. 

In another coffee shanta I heard a lady sing in 
Russian, the American coon song, " My Girl is a 



50 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

High-Born Lady," which was received with rounds 
of applause and she repeated it four times. When 
the performance is pleasing to a Russian audience the 
performers are called back until they are exhausted. 

There are many good bands of music in Irkutsk; 
some of them are entirely composed of women who 
play brass instruments. I heard a stringed orchestra 
of thirty women all playing the " polot," a Russian 
instrument something between a guitar and a mando- 
lin. They made splendid music. Another stringed 
orchestra was composed of an entire family — father, 
sons and daughters. One of the girls, a fine violinist, 
not more than fifteen years old, acted as conductor. 

Irkutsk though perfectly flat, is surrounded on all 
sides with beautiful green hills. The river Angara 
flows through the valley, a clear deep stream that 
joins the Yenesei to form a waterway from the center 
of Asia to the Arctic Ocean. 

The city has a population of over 50,000 ; and a fine 
theater where a troupe of artists from St. Petersburg 
play every winter. The Governor General occupies 
a mansion which cost 500,000 rubles. Many of the 
most costly buildings are built of brick and plaster on 
the outside but the majority of them are wood. Of 
course there is a magnificent Greek church with a 
superb view of the city and the surrounding country 
from the top of it. 

The whole town has a new appearance, that re- 
sembles the Western villages of America. The streets 



SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 51 

are wide, but few of them are paved. One wide street 
runs through the center of the town, where the 
hotels and most of the business houses are situated. 
A large market, covering almost an acre, is situated 
out of doors and there one can buy all kinds of eat- 
ables. 

Hordes of beggars render it impossible to sit at the 
windows. I tried it a number of times and found in 
a few minutes a dozen or more had congregated, most 
of whom were convicts from Russia and armed to the 
teeth. It was also difficult to walk the streets for 
they are at every turn and corner. The police have a 
way of going through the town with a stick which 
they scratch on the fences and houses by way of an- 
nouncing that they are attending to duty, but the 
noise is very disagreeable. The old portion of 
Irkutsk is still to be seen in part. It is over 300 years 
old. 

There are three hotels, the Russia, the Deko, and 
the Hotel Metropole, the last considered the best. 
The Russia has an immense coffee garden, the Deko 
has a music hall and coffee garden not connected with 
the hotel. None of these hotels are good — there are 
no good hotels in Siberia. 

It took me some time to manage Siberian beds. I 
found it impossible to spend the whole night in one so 
I stayed in it as long as I could and then got up and 
dressed. In this way I was able to endure the night 
fairly well. To my tortured sense of feeling this 



52 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

thing designated a bed appeared to be nothing more 
than a mass of broken iron covered with a sheet. As 
a matter of fact, the bed in a Siberian hotel generally 
has a miserable old mattress without springs, and even 
the slats are broken. You are expected to bring with 
you pillows, pillow cases, sheets and all the necessary 
covering; but the hotels in Irkutsk supply sheets and 
towels, if you pay extra for them, but most of them 
have been used before and are consequently far from 
clean. I would advise persons contemplating a 
Siberian trip, to arrange to carry table as well as bed 
linen. The table cloths and napkins on the trains be- 
come very much soiled before the end of the journey, 
and while the attendants tried to do their best, they 
told us it would be impossible to give us clean table 
linen every day for they had no means of laundering 
them. 

The food at the Irkutsk hotels is not as good as that 
on the trains and it is much higher priced. For 
breakfast it is a good plan to have a samovar brought 
into the room; it will hold hot water enough for a 
dozen persons. Bread and butter will be furnished 
for thirty cents and you can have your own jam. We 
used to have the samovar brought into our rooms two 
or three times a day and have luncheon between meals. 
It is the custom of the Russians always to have the 
samovar in readiness for the refreshment of them- 
selves and any chance guests. 

There are many good stores in Irkutsk where one 



SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIANS 53 

can buy anything desired. There is also a telephone 
system running through the town but it is not of the 
improved kind and I never found one that would 
work well. 

A few days had been spent rather agreeably and 
now it was time to take my departure. The place im- 
proved upon acquaintance and impressed me more 
favorably than on the day of my disagreeable advent. 
Though the town is not at all pretty its surroundings 
are all one could wish. I had met the Siberians in 
their own country and found them quite different 
from my conception of them. They have an air of 
independence and it is evident that they are not so 
subservient to the church as the Russians are, Alto- 
gether they resemble the people of other new countries 
of rich resources. Many of them were well to do, 
and prosperity has made them liberal and given them 
a tendency to a free and easy life that leads to a great 
deal of drinking and gambling and fosters a spirit of 
" hail-fellow, well-met." 



CHAPTER FIVE 

LAST GLIMPSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 

T^ RID AY is the day on which the express leaves 
*■ Irkutsk for Lake Baikal. As it leaves very 
early in the morning Mr. Vassili, the Siberian, sent his 
valet in advance to the station so that when we arrived 
our tickets were purchased and our baggage regis- 
tered, and all we had to do was to step on board the 
train. The express was very slow. We were four 
hours in traveling less than forty miles, but the ride 
was enjoyable for the scenery through which we 
passed was very charming. Arriving at Lake Baikal 
the train ran up to the long floating dock and the 
passengers had only a short walk to the boat. I had 
hoped that the great ice breaker, the " Baikal," would 
take the train across the lake, but it was engaged to 
carry soldiers and supplies for the army in Manchuria 
and the frontier, so we were carried across on the 
small ice breaker, the " Angara." The big " Baikal " 
passed near us so we had a good view of it. The idea 
of an ice breaker came from the United States. It is 
built on the same plan as the New York ferry boats. 
The " Baikal " was constructed at the works of Arm- 
strong & Co. in England, being taken to its destina- 
tion in pieces and put together on the shores of the 
lake. It is constructed of steel, 290 feet in length. 

54 



LAST GLIMPSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 55 

Its speed is something over thirteen knots an hour, its 
displacement, with a full cargo, 4200 tons. The 
"Baikal" is equipped with three engines of 3750 
horse power, and carries three tracks on its main deck 
capable of holding over 20 cars. The cabins above 
accommodate 150 passengers. 

Lake Baikal is fresh water, 396 miles in length and 
from 18 to 60 miles in breadth. It is 1561 feet above 
the level of the sea and surrounded by mountains from 
5000 to 6000 feet in height. Although it was the first 
of August the tops of these mountains were covered 
with snow. The sun was setting as our train stood 
on the track at Misovaya, the station on the opposite 
side of the lake, and the sky was a blaze of magnifi- 
cent coloring which was reflected on the mountain 
tops and in the great lake below. These colors were 
blended together with that soft mellow light so char- 
acteristic of Italy and Egypt, and one could have 
imagined oneself viewing a sunset from the citadel at 
Cairo instead of on this great inland sea in the heart 
of Asia. The road in course of construction around 
the lake was being pushed forward with great rapidity 
at that time, and was expected soon to be ready for 
use. When it is, new employment will have to be 
found for the big ice breaker. 

Our train was now composed of new cars. The 
dining car was very clean but the food was not so 
good as before, though somewhat dearer. We were 
now on the Trans-Baikal road, which commences at 



58 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Misovaya, and the train slowed down to almost a 
walking pace for the country is very mountainous and 
the highest grading on the whole line is on this part 
of the road. The Yablonoi Mountains are crossed 
there at an altitude of 3412 feet, the highest point 
reached. 

The country from Lake Baikal to Stretensk is more 
or less mountainous and in many places the scenery is 
very fine. Since the road has been completed through 
Manchuria the train that leaves Misovaya runs to 
Khaidalovo, where the passengers change for the 
Manchurian train, but those bound for Stretensk 
must change cars several hundred miles this side of 
that station and submit to very inferior accommoda- 
tions. 

As I had learned before leaving Irkutsk that the 
cholera was raging in Manchuria, having met five 
doctors who were going to Habarovsk to practice in 
the cholera hospitals, I decided to go by way of the 
rivers; therefore, I had to change cars and wait ten 
hours for the train to Stretensk, and did not arrive 
there until late in the evening. It happened, how- 
ever, that our Siberian friend Vassili, who had large 
tea plantations in China, had been importing tea by 
way of the rivers to large business houses in Stretensk, 
and he telegraphed to his head man to meet us when 
we arrived. Although our train was very late some- 
one had waited at the station for us, so, when we 
arrived, carriages and express wagons were in readi- 




A Greek Priest 



LAST GLIMPSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 57 

ness to take us and our baggage to the hotel. Our 
party was now increased by the addition of a Russian 
admiral who was a friend of the English lady's hus- 
band. He was one of the largest owners of the river 
fleet, and had telegraphed for a boat to be in readiness 
to take him to Blagovchensk, his destination. 

After we had spent a few hours very pleasantly in 
Stretensk he announced that his boat was large 
enough for the whole party and we would escape a 
three days' wait by accepting his invitation. He had 
also invited a gentleman and his wife, and of course 
we all accepted his courteous invitation. Accord- 
ingly, the English lady, her maid Marie, the two dogs, 
the five doctors and myself went on board, and we 
were soon on our way down the Shilka River. 

The inhabitants of Stretensk are mostly Cossacks, 
this being the Cossack country. The town is on a 
high hill overlooking the Shilka River and the railroad 
station is across the river, over which the ferry boat is 
drawn by a cable. At the time of my visit the streets 
were a foot deep in mud, for it had been raining some 
time. The town had a new look and has, I should 
say, from 6,000 to 7,000 inhabitants. We went to 
the best hotel and found it very indifferently kept, al- 
though it was pretentious enough to possess a large 
music hall. 

At Stretensk I saw, for the first time, the wild 
Siberian horses in use. They are very inferior look- 
ing animals but have wonderful strength. On one 



-58 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

occasion they pulled our conveyance up a hill which 
must have been three hundred feet in height, and, al- 
though it was very slippery with mud, they went up 
without resting. I was told they could live on almost 
nothing and they certainly looked it with their long 
shaggy hair and thin bodies, — as though they had 
eaten nothing but ice all their lives. 

From Irkutsk to Stretensk the end of the Siberian 
road, is about 723 miles. The trip on the Shilka 
River was very delightful, for we had no fogs and 
only one or two small showers. The river was boom- 
ing and our boat was so small it cut through the water 
like a bird through the air. The only disagreeable 
feature was the loading of wood every two or three 
hours. I am sure that boat would have created a 
wood famine in any other country but Siberia where 
the wood piles are as big as the mountains. Along 
the river the hills were not more than 1500 feet in 
height but the arrangement and shape, with every 
now and then a rock projecting from their sides, made 
them very charming, with the river winding in many 
graceful curves at their base. After sunset the at- 
mospheric coloring over the mountains was a most 
beautiful blue, and the reflection of it in the river 
would change from every conceivable shade of blue to 
black. 

We stopped at many Cossack villages along the 
river. The houses were mostly one story, built of 
wood, unpainted, except the window blinds, which 



LAST GLIMPSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 59 

were white. There are many Chinamen doing busi- 
ness in these villages, for they lie on the Chinese 
border. 

In a little over three days from the time we left 
Stretensk we anchored at the quarantine station at 
Blagovchensk for a few hours, for the cholera was 
raging badly in Manchuria. 

The first thing one sees on reaching the dock is the 
arch erected in honor of the visit of the Czar in 1891. 
Blagovchensk is situated at the junction of the Amoor 
and Zega rivers and has a population of 35,000. It 
is built on level ground with long wide streets, some 
of which are destined to become boulevards for trees 
have been planted along each side. 

None of the streets are paved and there are no 
sewers nor water works. Wood enters largely into 
the composition of the town, although there are a 
number of stone and brick buildings which are very 
imposing. There are many stores, and almost every- 
thing can be bought at some one of them. The larg- 
est is kept by a German firm, Kuntz & Albert. There 
were four banks doing business there and many large 
and costly churches were to be seen scattered through- 
out the city. The first warm weather during our 
journey was experienced there, though it was as late 
as August 8th. 

At this time another small boat was hired by the 
doctors of our party and we proceeded down the 
Amoor river. Most of the way the country is level 



60 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and in some places the banks are so low that the river 
spreads out to several miles in width, while at other 
points the hills are high, though for the most part 
they lie back from the river. 

We were reminded of the Boxer uprisings in pass- 
ing the site of the town of Aigun, which is not far 
from the river on the Manchurian side. It was 
formerly a village of 15,000 inhabitants but now noth- 
ing remains except a small Chinese pagoda and 
several thousand chimneys to show where the terrible 
massacre took place. Though but a few years have 
elapsed since these awful events, thousands of China- 
men have gone back to live in the Russian towns. 

We were very fortunate in having no foggy 
weather, and there was very little rain, although the 
sky was cloudy most of the way. When our boat 
stopped at night thousands of bugs were attracted by 
the lights and settled on the decks in such numbers we 
could scoop them up by shovelfuls. Many of them 
were very pretty. 

On arriving at Habarovsk we were again quar- 
antined for a few hours. This gave us time to view 
the town from the river and very charming it ap- 
peared with its little green park on the top of the high 
hill. 

Habarovsk is situated at the junction of the Amoor 
and Usuri rivers. It was founded by Count Mura- 
vief Ainski and was named for the Cossack General 
Khabarov who helped to conquer the Amoor country. 




A Street in Blagovchensk 




The Governor's Mansion, Haoarovsh 



LAST GLIMPSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 61 

In one of the parks there is a statue of the town's 
founder, and here one can obtain a splendid view of 
the river. In the same park there is a museum, and 
the Governor General's imposing mansion is near at 
hand. Wide, unpaved streets run through the town 
and the hill from which we obtained our view is 
ascended by means of a wooden stairway. A carriage 
road also leads to the top. The condition of the 
town is extremely unsanitary on account of the lack 
of water supply and sewers. Most of the new town 
is built of brick, the old portion being of wood. As 
is the case with most Siberian towns, the males greatly 
outnumber the female portion of the inhabitants, 
which number in all about 15,000 persons. Hotel ac- 
commodations are poor, and not obtainable at all un- 
less telegraphed for in advance. It is a prosperous 
town notwithstanding, and there are many good 
stores kept by persons of different nationalities. 

Arriving at the railroad station, which is situated 
a long distance from the town, one observes at once 
the difference between this part of the road and that 
just passed over, this being the Usuri branch. The 
station is built of wood with a lot of gingerbread work 
about it and surrounded by a well-kept park outlined 
with flower beds in fancy shapes. 

Our train was composed of many cars, but every 
available space was taken; and though the cars are 
equipped with special compartments for the ladies, 
these must buy an entire compartment and then sit 



62 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

up all night to hold the door, or else have a man in it, 
for the door is opened at every station by newcomers 
hunting for places. The dining room runs length- 
wise in the cars and it is not so pleasant, for many 
kinds and conditions of people dine there. However, 
there is a buffet where one may help oneself to an 
appetizer before the feast begins, and the food and 
the prices are about the same as on the other part of 
the road. 

We passed through a beautiful country and this 
part of the railroad is much better built than the other. 
The stations are very attractive and show that the 
people are well to do and are trying to keep pace with 
the rest of the world. The Nikholsk is the most im- 
portant station on the line for it is there that the 
Manchuria railroad connects with the Usuri line, sixty 
miles above Vladivostok. 

The English lady's Russian husband sent his valet 
to meet the train several stations before Vladivostok 
was reached. His purpose was to relieve us of the 
care of our baggage and help us prepare to leave the 
train. He appeared delighted to relieve Marie, the 
maid, of the care of the dogs, and she gave a sigh of 
relief and smiled sweetly. It was like a burst of sun- 
shine from a dark sky — it seemed to refresh us all. 

Our train commenced to slow down and someone 
said Vladivostok. A few moments later we rolled 
into the great station of Nicholas II, where, on the 
19th of May, 1891, His Imperial Highness, then the 



LAST GLIMPSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 6& 

Czarevitch, filled with his own hands a wheelbarrow 
full of earth and emptied it on the embankment of the 
future Usuri line and there laid the first stone in the 
construction of the Great Siberian Railway. 

It was just twenty-six days since I had left Moscow 
but only twenty days of the time had been spent in 
travel. The distance covered was 6000 miles. My 
first class ticket from Moscow to Vladivostok cost 194 
rubles, equal to $106.70 American money. Never in 
my life had I made a trip of so long a distance with 
so few unpleasant experiences ; every little cloud that 
arose seemed to contain a ray of sunshine. The cars 
were comfortable, more so than are most cars in 
Europe, and while the bills of fare were not elaborate, 
the food was good, the small cost of which, when one 
takes into consideration the distance covered and the 
accommodations given, surpasses anything in the his- 
tory of railroading. 

I found the Russians very patriotic. Their love of 
country, and their corresponding bump of self-esteem, 
are abnormally developed. They simply smile when 
the idea is suggested of a Russian traveling outside 
of his own country, and I was told repeatedly that it 
was impossible for a Russian to see half his native 
land in a lifetime, for it takes three weeks to cross the 
great empire without stopping. When any allusion 
was made to the country bordering on Siberia it was 
slyly remarked that sometime it might become a Rus- 
sian possession. Now that the road is completed 



m NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

through Manchuria, it is to be hoped that new rails 
and a better road bed will be made on the Siberian 
part, in order that the speed may be increased to 
twenty-five miles an hour ; eventually, no doubt, better 
time than this will be made. 

It had been raining in Vladivostok and the atmos- 
phere was damp and very disagreeable. To add to 
the discomfort, the hotel was new and the walls were 
damp. The day after our arrival one of the servants 
came down with the cholera and had to be sent to the 
hospital. The hospitals were filled with cholera pa- 
tients and the town was very unhealthy, — a condi- 
tion attributed to an inadequate water supply, that 
made it almost impossible to get enough water to wash 
the face, and a bath a luxury not to be thought of. 
The water used at the hotel was evaporated from a 
brackish lake just outside the town. I was told that 
people had learned to do without water, a statement 
which I had no reason to doubt, since nearly every 
person I met was intoxicated. In the hotel dining 
room I made it a point to secure a table in a safe 
place so that my next-door neighbor would not fall on 
me when he rose to leave. 

From my window I could see in the harbor nineteen 
Russian men-of-war, one Japanese and one American. 
They looked so white and peaceful as their hulls rested 
on the placid water of the Golden Horn, it was im- 
possible to comprehend the awful death-dealing mis- 
siles which these hulls concealed within them. From 





Vladivostok — Last Glimpses of the Russian Empire 



LAST GLIMPSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 65 

12,000 to 15,000 soldiers are kept here all the time 
and the hills are lined for miles around with the great 
red brick barracks. Day and night the tread of 
soldiers may be heard passing the hotel, and a dirty 
miserable looking lot they are, with their old brown 
blankets rolled up and passed over one shoulder and 
around their backs. They wear great high cow-hide 
boots and their hair and beard look as though they 
had never been washed or combed. Their guns and 
swords were rusty and dirty, and their faces were 
stolid, betokening ignorance of everything but a 
soldier's life. 

While Nature has been very generous in surround- 
ing the great naval fortress with pretty hills and has 
given it a splendid harbor, weeping clouds and leaden 
skies destroy much of its beauty. 

There is a great deal of emigration to Vladivostok 
and it has a mixed population, though there are more 
Chinese than any other foreigners. There are also 
Japanese and Koreans, and many religious denomina- 
tions are represented. I saw a number of orthodox 
churches, also Chinese, Japanese and Korean temples. 

Owing to the large standing army the males out- 
number the females ten to one. The town is built on 
a hillside and the streets are in bad condition. Riding 
in a drosky is most disagreeable, for the Russians 
drive very fast and their passengers soon find them- 
selves badly shaken up. 

I had noticed all through the Russian Empire a 



66 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

rather peculiar custom, but knowing the bad condition 
of the roads and the shallowness of the droskys, I sup- 
posed, when I saw a gentleman driving with his arm 
about a lady's waist, that consideration prompted him 
to do so to protect her from falling out. Observing 
my surprise, the English lady remarked, " I see you 
notice the Russian custom of a gentleman putting his 
arm around a lady's waist while driving out with her. 
That is the way a Russian shows his good breeding. 
The man who omits this courtesy would be considered 
ill bred." So universally was this feature of Russian 
etiquette observed, however, I concluded it must be 
enjoyed by both parties. 

A visit to the opera, which is rendered very well by 
talent from St. Petersburg and attended by ladies in 
costly Parisian gowns, completed my stay in Vladi- 
vostok. When the time came to take my last samovar 
luncheon and bid my fellow travelers good-by, when 
I gazed for the last time on the face of the ikon which 
hangs high up in the corner of almost every room in 
the great empire, it was with heartfelt regret I did so. 
I bought a samovar and took it away with me; but 
after I left Russia it seemed to lose the charm it had 
in its native land; and, besides, I missed the English 
lady, for she always drew the hot water and made the 
tea. Moreover, the dogs were not there to beg for 
bits of cake, and Marie, the maid, who used to put 
spoonfuls of delicious jam in our tea, was also gone, 
and I was alone once more, and far out at sea. 



KOREA AND CHINA 



CHAPTER SIX 

"THE HERMIT COUNTRY" 

WAS now traveling on a Japanese steamer. The 
*■■ captain and crew and all the passengers, with the 
exception of myself, were Japanese. The captain 
was very proud of his boat and wanted everyone to 
understand that there was nothing Japanese about it 
and that he was an up-to-date captain. He told the 
head steward to give me a seat at his right and then 
arrange the rest of the passengers according to their 
wealth. Most of them were rich merchants, but those 
who did not enjoy that distinction were set down near 
the first officer. The purser was allowed to sit at the 
middle of the table for he was the only one, with the 
exception of myself, who could speak English, and 
the captain wished to ask me many questions. This 
purser was, I believe, one of the plainest Japanese I 
ever remember to have seen. He had attended the 
missionary school at Osaka and could speak a few 
words of English. The missionaries were from New 
York and, according to his story, had taught him that 
New York comprised the whole of the United States. 
I told him I was from Chicago, to which he replied 
that he had never heard of the place. I showed him 
a map of the world and pointed out where Chicago 
was situated, but it was marked with a very small dot 

69 



70 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and he at once exclaimed, " Oh, I thought it was a 
very small place or the missionaries would have told 
me about it." He was well posted, however, about 
New York and the " Four Hundred " and thought he 
would have no difficulty in making an entry into its 
aristocratic circle when he had spent another year at 
the missionary school. 

Japanese maidens, he declared, had lost all their 
charms for him, and he had ordered his sister to pro- 
vide herself with dresses such as the New York ladies 
wear. He inquired if I did not think Japanese 
handled knives and forks as though they had never 
used chop-sticks, and declared that the art of eating 
soup with a spoon had been difficult for him to ac- 
quire. I suggested a few more lessons before he 
joined the society of New York's " Four Hundred," 
and hinted at the advisability of reform in the present 
Japanese method of eating soup by holding the plate 
about two inches from the face and making a noise 
that sounds like Farmer Brown's hogs eating their 
rations of sour milk. 

After nearly two days of rough and foggy weather 
all on board were glad to see the lights of Wan-sen or 
Gensen Harbor on the coast of Korea. It is called 
" Lazrell " by the Russians and forms a part of 
Broughton Bay. It is one of the finest harbors in the 
Far East; and because of its great size, depth and 
sheltered position it never freezes. Both the Russians 
and the Japanese use it for their warship maneuvers. 



"THE HERMIT COUNTRY" 71 

I was very anxious to go on shore for my first 
glimpse of Korea and its people, and when I landed I 
found myself in a large Japanese town. I at once 
inquired if there were no Koreans in the place and 
was informed their town was situated two miles fur- 
ther down the coast ; and, as the means of proceeding 
there was by boat or riksha, I chose the latter. 

Gensen, I found, is divided into three parts, the 
Japanese, Chinese and Korean quarters. The 
Japanese portion was clean, with paved streets, good 
houses and pleasant surroundings. The Chinese 
town was unclean and had a dilapidated appearance, 
but it remained for the Koreans to display the 
extreme of filth. The streets were filled with stag- 
nant pools, dirty ragged people and hundreds of dis- 
eased dogs. The houses were small with one or two 
rooms heated by means of a chimney, which was run 
under the house and emerged on the opposite side. 
It did not seem creditable that the town had never 
been visited by cholera or any of the contagious dis- 
eases. 

Picking my way through the filthy streets I was 
startled by a man in white guaze apparel riding on a 
white donkey. Never before had I seen a Korean of 
the better class in full dress, and my surprise may 
scarcely be imagined at seeing a person in such im- 
maculate white robes riding through that dirty town. 
Indeed, he looked as though he had just dropped from 
the skies; or as though he had gotten himself up to 



72 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

take flight to some halcyon shore. His attire con- 
sisted of white undergarments, thick enough to hide 
his body, a white silk gauze coat reaching below the 
knees, white pantalets of the same material, white 
cloth stockings, a pair of velvet slippers and a high, 
black horsehair hat fastened underneath the chin with 
a string of blue beads. His clothing was put together 
with white wax and appeared seamless. In one of 
the shops I saw some bamboo racks worn by the 
Koreans on their arms and on the front and back of 
their bodies to protect their clothing from prespira- 
tion. The better class of Koreans spend seventy-five 
per cent, of their income in dress, for they are very 
vain, and the material used is very perishable. 

En route to Fusan, about thirty miles from Gensen, 
our captain sighted some shipwrecked fishermen, and 
the sailors launched a sampan and went to the rescue. 
There were seven of them, one a small boy of sixteen 
who was the only one who appealed to the sympathy 
of the captain. Poor fellows! They had been 
washed by the sea for forty-eight hours and they were 
about to give themselves up for lost. Their faces 
were swollen to twice the normal size. A collection 
for their benefit was taken up among the passengers, 
to which I contributed five yen, or $2.50, American 
money. Hearing what I had given, the captain re- 
marked that he had never heard of such generosity 
and insisted that I should take back part of it, declar- 
ing it was a shame to throw away money on such 







00 O 




to 
o 



is e 

-to O 

5a ,. 



*q 






"THE HERMIT COUNTRY" 73 

worthless people as the Koreans. He said he would 
take them back to their homes and that all he wanted 
them to have was money enough to buy rice to eat on 
the way. 

A chain of mountains, quite high and treeless, ex- 
tends along the coast from Gensen to Fusan, and the 
Japanese Sea is a beautiful blue and very smooth. 
Fusan was not in sight when the ship entered the 
harbor, for it lies behind the hills. It was late in the 
evening before we landed and quite dark. When we 
arrived, the Japanese customs house officers insisted 
that I should open my baggage, but I insisted it was 
too dark and I would do nothing of the kind, nor 
did I. 

There being no other means of transportation, I 
loaded my baggage on the backs of two coolies, They 
were Koreans of great strength and capable of carry- 
ing three hundred pounds with ease. A wooden rack 
with two long prongs is strapped on their backs, and 
on this the load is placed, a rope being passed around 
it to hold it on. 

There was but one hotel in Fusan kept by Japanese, 
It was lighted by electricity but everything else was 
in the Japanese style, and the whole upper floor was 
one large room, a corner of which was assigned to me 
as my apartment. At about ten o'clock a Japanese 
maid began to slide the doors, to make the room into 
five or six small compartments, and I was assured that 
my corner was the choicest part of the hotel. Pres- 



74 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

ently another maid brought in a Japanese bed, which 
consisted of several comforters (called "futons"), 
and a round pillow stuffed with rice, and laid them on 
the floor. A great sleeping bag, also made of com- 
forters, was brought for my use, but I declined it. 
No bed linen was brought for it is not used by the 
Japanese. However, all the other necessary articles 
were provided, and I proceeded to arrange things for 
the night, when just as I was about to lie down on my 
pallet I heard a din which made me think the world 
was coming to an end. At a given signal every slid- 
ing door in this town of over 30,000 inhabitants began 
to slide at once, for it was time to shut up shop for 
the night, and it seemed that everyone in the place 
kept some kind of a shop. 

Again I settled down for the night and slept until 
two o'clock, when I was aroused by a noise that sug- 
gested another sliding of doors. To my surprise, 
someone was knocking at mine and before I could say 
a word a Japanese officer had entered and was kneel- 
ing at the side of my pallet, bowing to the floor as he 
apologized for coming at so late an hour. He told 
me in English that he was only carrying out the law, 
which required that a stranger should be registered as 
soon as it became known he was in the place, and he 
explained that he had just heard of my arrival as he 
lived some distance out of the town. He wanted to 
know my age, the color of my eyes and hair, where I 
was born, where I came from and where I was going. 



"THE HERMIT COUNTRY" 75 

By the time he had departed the mosquitoes had de- 
cided to come inside, for they missed the people who 
had retired from the street, and all prospects of sleep 
being out of the question for that night I was glad to 
see the first dawn of day. It was not long before a 
Japanese servant, bowing to the floor, came in with 
my breakfast and set it on a table about five inches 
high. The meal was a miserable mess and I forgot 
that I had ever possessed an appetite, for it took 
speedy flight when the Japanese cooking was set be- 
fore me. 

Fusan was disappointing, for there were so few 
Koreans in the place. It is a well-built, prosperous 
Japanese town, not at all clean in the streets, and it 
has an open sewer that is exceedingly offensive. I 
was glad to be again on a Japanese boat and proceed- 
ing on my journey. 

This time it was a fine, large craft and very com- 
fortable. A few yen to the head steward, a China- 
man who had lived for ten years in California, secured 
for me the best of everything on board, and a very 
pleasant change it was from my quarters at Fusan. 
As the boat passed out of the harbor, and I left the 
blue waters of the Japanese Sea, the great contrast 
in the coloring of the two bodies of water was ex- 
tremely noticeable. The Yellow Sea is always a 
muddy color, and as it had been stirred to its depths 
by a terrible typhoon, it was thicker than ever with 
mud. 



m NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

There are many islands along the coast, but they are 
rough and barren like the mainland. We dropped 
anchor in the roadstead about a mile from Chemulpo, 
for the harbor is too small to accommodate more than 
a few boats at a time, and the rise and fall of the tide 
make it difficult for them to get out. 

Chemulpo was an improvement on Fusan.^ The 
town is situated on rolling ground, with high hills at 
the back. It is clean, with no open sewers, and the 
air is cool and bracing. Its inhabitants are Japanese, 
Chinese and Koreans, with quite a sprinkling of 
Europeans. Two hotels on the American plan are 
kept by Japanese and Chinese, and they are really 
good for Korea. There are two banks, one Japanese, 
owned by a private banking company, and the other a 
branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai bank. There 
are many good public and private buildings, among 
them a fine club house owned by the European 
population. 

I met the governor of Chemulpo, a Korean, by 
name Ha-sag-ki, who told me he had a wife at school 
in America, where he intended to keep her for seven 
years that she might learn the manners and customs 
of the people and become an accomplished lady after 
the American pattern. 

It is hard to get around in Chemulpo, because there 
are no means of transportation. One must walk, and 
the hills are exceedingly tiring. I found the hotels 
noisy. It seemed as though the people walked the 



"THE HERMIT COUNTRY" 77 

streets all night, and, besides, it was the grasshopper 
season, and dozens of little bamboo cages, filled with 
green grasshoppers three inches long, were hanging 
before the Chinese shops. These people are super- 
stitious about this insect, and believe it brings good 
luck. The chirping kept up day and night was al- 
most unendurable. 

Chemulpo is twenty-six miles from Seoul. For- 
merly travelers going from one town to the other were 
carried in sedan chairs by coolies, or by boat on the 
Han river; now, there is a good railway built by an 
American company and equipped with American cars. 
One coach of the train was divided into a first and 
second class compartment and there was a third class 
coach for the poor people. 

'} Two hours were consumed in covering these twenty- 
six miles to Seoul, and I did not realize I was in 
Korea until I arrived there. The railway is owned by 
a Japanese company, for the Korean government 
could not raise the funds to pay for it. In the other 
towns I had visited foreigners had transacted the 
business usually done by the natives, unless they were 
subjects of some other country. 

Knowing that Korea was not open to foreign im- 
migration until 1876, having been known as " The 
Hermit Country " until then, I was surprised to find 
that foreigners had made such an inroad in so short 
a time and had, in a measure, supplanted the natives. 
In Seoul, however, there is a preponderance of natives 



78 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and one has a chance to observe the Korean customs. 
Since the war between the Japanese and the Chinese, 
Seoul has been greatly improved. Before that time 
the streets were nothing but crooked lanes, but now 
there are two wide streets with an electric tram car 
running several miles through the center of the town. 

The Emperor's palace and the European houses 
are lighted with electricity, the electric plant and the 
street railway having been built by an American com- 
pany. But, with all these modern improvements, the 
town is very dirty, and the odor that comes from the 
open sewer running along the side, and in some places 
in the middle of the streets, is stifling. The town is 
surrounded by a wall with seven gates that are no 
longer closed at night and have lost their significance. 
The Gate of Death is no more dreaded now than the 
Gate of Bright Ambition, and they are all rotting and 
falling from their hinges. 

The native houses are built mostly of wood, 
thatched with straw, and the windows are made of 
paper. I visited the north palace where the late 
queen was assassinated, in the enclosure of which is 
the coronation hall where the present ruler was 
crowned. Nothing has been done to the buildings 
since the queen's death, but even in their dilapidated 
and falling condition they were interesting, and many 
of the fine carvings and strange colorings are well 
preserved. 

The Emperor lives in the south palace. He is a 




The Emperor of Korea 

In Foreign Military Dress 



"THE HERMIT COUNTRY" 79 

small man, good looking and said to be well educated. 
He ascended the throne on his tenth birthday and cele- 
brated his fifty-first August 21, 1902, during my stay 
in Seoul. The occasion was marked by a splendid 
spectacle, and the streets were filled with thousands of 
Koreans carrying banners, who marched to the palace 
singing, dancing and shouting " Long live our Em- 
peror." 

I had no idea before how attractive the Korean 
dress is. There were hundreds of small boys in the 
procession who looked like pretty little girls in their 
white gauze coats, their hair parted in the middle and 
hanging in long braids down their backs. A new 
coronation hall was being built for the celebration of 
the fortieth anniversary of the Emperor's accession, 
which would occur in the following October. Over 
five hundred men were employed in the construction 
of this building. 

The Crown Prince's poor health has weakened his 
mind and his half brother, the son of Lady Om, will 
succeed the father. Since my visit to Korea the Em- 
peror has placed the crown on Lady Om's head and 
she is now empress. It was much talked of while I 
was in Seoul, but it was opposed by the Koreans on 
the ground that she was once a dancing girl of the 
harem. I have heard that she was an American girl, 
born in Wisconsin, and the daughter of a missionary. 

The burial of the late Empress was very imposing. 
After she was assassinated by the Japanese in one of 



80 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

the rooms of the palace, it was burned and her body 
was nearly cremated. The Emperor had the few re- 
mains that were found placed in a magnificent casket 
and buried them two miles from Seoul, after which he 
employed an American company at a vast expense, 
to build a road twelve miles long so he could visit her 
tomb and those of the former rulers of Korea. Once 
a year he comes out of the palace grounds in a pony 
palanquin and makes a pilgrimage to these tombs. 

At the foot of south mountain is the Japanese town. 
It is clean and well built and the people are prosper- 
ous. On a hill near by is a monument that marks the 
place where the Treaty of Peace was signed between 
China and Japan. 

One of the first objects of interest visited by a 
stranger in Seoul is the great bell, a present from 
China, said to be the third largest in the world. For 
five centuries it was rung at six o'clock in the evening 
to warn the people that the gates of Seoul were to be 
shut for the night, and the men were to go home and 
stay in the house from six to nine, that the women 
might have an outing in the streets. 




Tomb of the Emperor's Father 



CHAPTER SEVEN 

KOREA AND THE KOREANS 

TV/T ANY changes have taken place in Korea since it 
•** A was separated from China. Each year it be- 
comes more liberal and it is slowly adopting many of 
the customs of the more civilized countries. The 
Korean army wears a uniform similar to that of the 
Japanese, and it has been drilled by different nation- 
alities. I could not learn, however, what country 
claimed the honor of drilling the emperor's body 
guard, but their maneuvers were very amusing. It 
was impossible for them to keep step and they were 
constantly marching or almost running around the 
outside of the palace wall, playing their bugles and 
laughing like a lot of schoolboys out on a lark. In 
one of the streets a German professor gave instruc- 
tions every morning to a number of Koreans who 
constituted what was known as the Emperor's brass 
band. They played well and showed they were not 
deficient in musical talent. 

The fires, which for so many centuries were kindled 
on the top of Nam-san and on the loftiest of the other 
mountains around Seoul, have ceased to burn. After 
the shades of night had fallen, the height and size 

81 



82 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

of their flame once informed the emperor of the state 
of his country, whether peaceful or threatened with 
internal wars or the invasion of foreign foes. Now, 
these ancient signals have been displaced by the more 
modern invention of the telegraph, which connects 
all parts of the empire with the capital. 

Hundreds of women now walk the streets with un- 
covered faces, though many, from force of habit, still 
wear the green cloak over the head but rarely pull it 
over the face. Young girls, however, still cover the 
face and live in seclusion. The style of dress worn 
by the Korean woman is a miserable invention. It 
consists of a perfectly straight skirt, gathered in a 
band of from five to six inches in width, and a long 
sleeved sack drawn over the arms and shoulders, 
which is so short in front it does not reach the band of 
the petticoat by about five inches, thereby exposing 
the bosom to a disgusting degree. 

Korean women are treated with great indifference 
by their husbands and they are not allowed in their 
presence except to wait on them. They never learn 
to read or write, only to slave from morning to night, 
spinning, weaving and laundering their husband's 
clothes, which is no small task, for these clothes are 
mostly white and very easily soiled. When the cloth 
is woven it is wound around wooden rollers and 
pounded with two sticks to make it smooth and 
straight, and the tapping of these sticks can be heard 
from morning till night. The white linen clothes 




Korean Method of Smoothing Cloth by Pounding it with Sticks 



KOREA AND THE KOREANS 88 

are ironed by passing over them a pan filled with live 
coals and shaped like a small American frying pan. 
The method of operation is for two women to sit 
opposite each other with their toes in the sleeves and 
other parts of the garment to stretch it out, while 
one of them passes the pan over it. 

The women are small and have bad forms. Their 
hair is generally long and black, their eyes large and 
of a brownish color and their complexion is not very 
dark. Both the men and the women are short in 
stature, the men being about five feet five or six 
inches and the women about five feet in height. The 
Koreans are a good looking race and do not resemble 
the Chinese or Japanese except for the Mongolian 
eyes. The men make a fine appearance on the 
streets, for their high horsehair hats make them look 
tall, and they are generally straight with well shaped 
shoulders. Many Korean boys are engaged to be 
married at the age of eight or ten. They put on 
high-crowned, yellow straw hats then, and as much 
respect is shown them as though they were married 
men, though marriage is not allowed until the girl is 
sixteen and the boy twenty years of age. 

One of the most striking costumes among the men 
is the dress of a mourner. It is made of very coarse, 
yellow hemp cloth, with a hat about four feet in cir- 
cumference woven of bamboo. Before his face, and 
just low enough to peep over it, he carries a piece of 
coarse yellow cloth about eight inches long and five 



84 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

wide, attached at each end to a stick, and during the 
whole period of mourning he wears straw shoes. 
This period of mourning lasts from twenty-four 
months to three years, and it is intended as a mark of 
respect to the deceased father of the mourner, no 
other relative being considered of sufficient impor- 
tance to mourn for. 

From the highest to the lowest in rank, Koreans 
are very dishonest. A bargain must be made with 
everyone who does anything for you, and even then 
you are likely to get the worst of it before they are 
through; they must have a " squeeze," as they call it. 
I had a guide who belonged to the " Yang-ban," 
which is the better class, and insisted that I call him 
" Pak-Kee-Ho," in order that the coolies should show 
him the respect he was entitled to on account of his 
rank. He had a very pleasing way of laughing 
which was very deceiving, and it was some time be- 
fore I learned not to mistake his pleasantries for 
genuine good nature, but rather to recognize them as 
a guise with which to cheat me. 

The currency of the country is very annoying. 
The Japanese yen, worth about three times as much 
as the Korean money, is used in Seoul and the seaport 
towns. The hotel keepers insist that they must be 
paid in yen, but you must have Korean money to pay 
the native people, for you make your bargains with 
them in their own currency. Seoul has a new cur- 
rency which is worth more than the old cashes ; but in 




00 

O 




00 

e 

OS 



5s> 



o 



cq 



KOREA AND THE KOREANS 85 

the interior of the country they use the copper and 
iron cashes strung on grass ropes. It takes about 
1,000 of these to make a yen, or fifty cents in our 
money. 

The shops of Seoul were disappointing: there were 
plenty of them arranged in different streets accord- 
ing to the merchandise sold, but they contained noth- 
ing worth buying except the Korean cloth of which 
the men's clothes are made. 

Among the few interesting sights of Seoul are 
a thirteen-story marble pagoda and a monument 
built on the back of a huge granite turtle, both pres- 
ents from China several centuries ago. Three cen- 
turies ago, when Korea was invaded by the Japanese, 
they took off three stories of the pagoda and placed 
it on the ground near by, and built fires round it to 
destroy it; but even the ravages of time and the black- 
ening effects of fire have been powerless to destroy 
the beautiful carvings which cover the entire pagoda. 
It is hard to tell what it represents, though it is 
thought to be the Chinese idea of the soul in the fu- 
ture life. 

There are many denominations of missionaries in 
Seoul. I visited some of them and found them in a 
flourishing condition. They live in good homes and 
most of them have comfortable places in which to 
worship. The Roman Catholic Mission has the most 
sightly quarters, situated on a high hill overlooking 
Seoul, and the largest number of converts, for it has 



86 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

been established in Korea for three hundred years. 
It suffered much from persecution during the reign 
of Tai- Wan-Kan, the father of the present emperor, 
who had over two thousand of these missionaries as- 
sassinated. The sisters teach the children all kinds 
of needlework and to read and write French. There 
are also a number of Korean sisters who have been in 
the mission for years. 

It is an extremely interesting sight to see the Ko- 
rean children retire for the night in the spacious dor- 
mitory. The quilts in which they wrap themselves are 
kept in small closets, and when they are ready to 
retire each child takes out the quilt bearing his num- 
ber, lays it on the floor, and then, lying down on it, 
rolls over two or three times until he is wrapped up 
as tight as a silkworm. I asked how they kept from 
smothering and was informed that they never suffered 
from this way of sleeping. One morning I attended 
eleven o'clock mass to see the children in Sunday at- 
tire. They were ranged in classes according to their 
ages, and each class, dressed in different colored Ko- 
rean gauze cloth, was in care of a teacher. They all 
marched in and knelt in that part of the church re- 
served for them, arranging themselves so that the 
different colors blended nicely. Eight or ten little 
boys sang the mass through and they did it well. The 
body of the church was filled with women dressed in 
pure white linen, who looked as if they had prepared 
themselves for the resurrection day. The sisters take 



KOREA AND THE KOREANS 87 

in washing, sewing and mending in order to sup- 
port the mission, which was built by the contribu- 
tions of the native people and received no help from 
France. 

I also visited one of the Methodist missions. This 
denomination had two divisions, the northern and 
southern Methodists, each of which seemed to have 
no brotherly love for the other. The church, a present 
from a lady in Maine, was a very nice little building 
constructed of brick, with hard wood furnishings sent 
out from the States. The minister was a tall thin man 
who apparently wished to impress his congregation 
with his sanctity by means of his stiff, unbending 
manner. The sermon was preached in the Korean 
language by a convert, and at its close a collection was 
taken up and each of the one hundred natives present 
rolled his contribution in a piece of paper, to make the 
plate full. When the preacher, who, up to this time 
had appeared oblivious to what was going on, saw the 
size of the offering, he jumped to his feet, took the 
plate from the usher* and laying his long bony hand 
over it, rolled off a blessing that might have been 
heard a block away. One of the missionary women 
informed me that the new way of getting money out 
of the natives was working like a charm, the plan 
being to have each person roll his contribution in a 
piece of paper and put his name on it, and the one who 
gave the most would have his name read out in Sun- 
day School. 



88 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

When I was staying in Chemulpo I met a lady of 
another denomination from one of our Western 
States. She was waiting for a number of missiona- 
ries who had been to America and Japan on their 
vacation. One day she remarked that it was generally 
supposed that missionaries were very religious, but 
that this notion was a great mistake, for they were 
really no more so than other people, and one could 
stay for weeks with them and never suspect their voca- 
tion. She told me it had been the custom for years for 
the missionaries who went to America to bring back 
to those who stayed behind the last slang phrase, 
and that on their arrival this was the first thing im- 
parted. 

When the boat arrived there were some seventeen 
or more missionaries on board; I lunched with them 
and observed that no blessing was asked at the table 
nor was religion or missionary work referred to in 
any way. They were delighted to return to Korea, 
where they all had good homes and plenty of serv- 
ants to wait upon them. For two or three weeks they 
were planning a grand picnic up the Han River on 
one of the house-boats. 

On one of the boats, upon which I was a passenger, 
I met an English missionary. He was a large man, 
some six feet in height, and wore a long white robe 
that was tied around the waist with a large black cord 
and reached nearly to his feet. He sat on the deck 
and smoked one of the vilest pipes I ever smelled, and 




South Gate, Seoul 




A Street in Seoul 



KOREA AND THE KOREANS 89 

at the table he drank a quart of claret at each meal. 
When I was about to leave Korea this same man came 
on board the ship to bid some of his friends good-by, 
and stayed to dinner. The lady whom he was visiting 
was a staunch temperance advocate, and he had the 
presumption to assure her that his ideas coincided 
with hers ; he had evidently forgotten that I had been 
his fellow-passenger on a previous occasion. 

Korean soil produces with very little farming. 
Everything seems to grow if it is put in the ground, 
covered and let alone. The climate is good, and the 
rainy season, during which the water descends in 
pailfuls, extends from the last of June to the last of 
August. The rest of the year the weather is very 
pleasant and the air bracing and healthful. 

Korea is a small peninsula on the northeast coast 
of China. It is a mountainous country, rich in min- 
erals, with a population estimated at 16,000,000. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

ALONG THE COAST OF CHINA 

T^ ROM Chemulpo to Chef oo is about twenty-eight 
*■ hours, the shortest route from Korea to China. 
The first thing one sees, on entering the harbor of 
Chef oo, is the American flag floating from a staff in 
front of the American consulate on the top of a high 
bluff that overlooks the harbor. There are many- 
other flags to be seen on this bluff, for it is here that 
the different consuls reside. 

Chefoo was for many years the summer resort for 
Shanghai people ; but, since Wei-hai-wei, the English 
possession on the coast, has been abandoned as a mili- 
tary post, this has been converted into a summer re- 
sort, and there has been a great falling off in the 
number of visitors at Chefoo. 

There is a large Chinese town situated some dis- 
tance from the foreign settlement. I found the hotel 
there quite deserted, for the season was over and those 
who remained were waiting for the races. Among 
these were two women, one a Mrs. Howton, from 
London, about sixty; the other, twenty-seven. I soon 
learned from the conversation of the older woman 
that she had been systematically bringing out her mar- 
riageable female relatives and marrying them off in 

90 



ALONG THE COAST OF CHINA 91 

China. Now she had only one more on her hands, 
and she hoped to dispose of her at the races. 

This young lady she introduced to me as her niece, 
Angelia Ainslie. She was a very tall young person, 
with large feet, long arms and a bony neck, which, 
after the English style, she uncovered at dinner. This 
style consists of a long train with almost no waist at 
all. She had rather a pretty face, but wore a troubled 
expression, as her aunt was constantly schooling her 
in the arts necessary to catch a husband. The poor 
girl would sometimes break down and declare she 
would rather go back home and never marry than stay 
with her old termagant of an aunt; but the intrepid 
matchmaker paid no attention to her niece's com- 
plaints, and kept herself well filled with whisky and 
soda, her eagle eye meanwhile scanning the field for 
every eligible man that might appear, and promptly 
seeing to it that he was presented to her niece without 
delay. 

She instructed the girl to look young and childlike, 
and when the young men invited her to go anywhere, 
she was to say, "You know I am chaperoned by 
Auntie, and I would like her to accompany me." In 
this way the aunt managed to go to many places with- 
out expense, and she could engineer her matrimonial 
schemes. She looked forward to the races as an op- 
portunity to accomplish her matchmaking designs 
without trouble, for men come from all along the 
coast, and there are usually six to every woman. She 



92 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

had ner niece dressed in her smartest gown and seated 
where she could be seen by all the gentlemen at the 
races, while she herself was constantly on the lookout 
for the one who, in her estimation, was the best catch. 

At last she spied a young English officer who had 
been in China with his regiment only a short time. 
He had one of the best ponies on the ground, and was 
to compete for the ladies' prize. She at once disclosed 
her plans to her niece, telling her how she had once 
caught an officer for her daughter, and that she wished 
her to marry as well as her cousin had done. Forth- 
with, she and her niece entered the betting circle and 
commenced to play on the pony, complimenting it 
until they completely won the admiration of its owner, 
who was very much in love with its running qualities. 
He invited them to have some champagne as a token 
of his appreciation of their superior discernment, and 
the old lady at once began her campaign by sounding 
the young man to discover his vulnerable points, in 
order that she might take her cue. 

She was not long in learning that he was very home- 
sick and wanted to go back to England to see his peo- 
ple. At once she pictured to him, in touching lan- 
guage, how she had suffered when she came out to 
China; then she called her niece and recounted how 
she, too, had mourned and wept her exile from home, 
though she omitted to mention the real cause of her 
niece's sorrow. She wiped her eyes and the young 
woman wiped hers. At this impressive moment she 



ALONG THE COAST OF CHINA 93 

told him how glad she would be to take the place of 
his mother, while her niece would be a sister to him. 

By these maneuvers they quite won the young 
man's confidence, and they continued their cunning 
devices until the last day of the races, when they suc- 
cessfully bagged their game. The old lady took a 
number of whiskies and sodas to celebrate the event, 
and went to bed, leaving the young people to stroll in 
the garden under the light of the pale moon. 

Chefoo is noted for the mutton produced in the 
neighborhood and considered the best in China. 
American missionaries who have been in this part of 
the country for years have introduced many kinds of 
American fruits, which produce abundantly and of 
excellent quality. There is a large mission school 
there, said to be the best in the East, and patronized 
by foreigners from all parts of Japan and China; 
there are no English schools except those conducted 
by the missionaries. Some of these missionaries, as 
in other parts of China, dress in the Chinese fashion, 
shave their heads and wear the queue, but they have 
very little respect from the natives, who speak of 
them as "no Chinamen, only try to foolee China- 
man." 

The only means of getting around is by sedan 
chairs, and almost everyone has a chair and coolies, 
whom they dress in all sorts of livery to suit their taste. 
I saw great, healthy Englishmen get into chairs to 
be carried only a few yards, for it is not the style to 



94 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

walk, you know, when for a small sum you can get a 
coolie to carry you. There is little doubt that many 
of these people never had a servant until they came to 
China, and thought nothing of a five-mile walk. The 
inactive lives they lead, coupled with the climate, soon 
cause the women to lose their healthy English color, 
and, as might be said, to utterly collapse; they grow 
pale as death, and have to go home to recuperate. 

The races at Chef oo are the event of the year. All 
business is at a standstill while the foreign settlement 
dons its smartest clothes and goes to the racecourse, 
which is situated on a pretty piece of ground at one 
end of the harbor, two miles from the foreign settle- 
ment. You may choose between two ways of reach- 
ing it, one by means of a small launch, which subjects 
you to the drawback of a probable wetting when you 
land, the other to be carried in a chair by coolies. I 
chose the latter rather than risk the wetting, but I 
soon regretted my choice, for my route led through 
Chinatown, and I am sure everything, from a China- 
man to a rat, must have been dead along that road. 
As a matter of fact, this was literally true and no 
mere figure of speech. In addition to this, the other 
filth that filled the streets made it unbearable. In one 
of the dirtiest streets my chair rope suddenly broke, 
and let me down with a tremendous thud right into 
the filth, but fortunately the chair saved me from get- 
ting into it. Nevertheless, there I had to sit and wait 
until new ropes could be procured and the chair re- 



ALONG THE COAST OF CHINA 95 

paired. It would be impossible to describe the state 
of my feelings when I again resumed my journey. 

Arriving at the grounds, I found the track and the 
grandstand roped off by barbed wire to keep out 
about two thousand Chinamen who had assembled out 
of curiosity, to beg, and sell Chinese chow (food). 
The grandstand was built of bamboo poles covered 
with coarse bamboo matting, and some common chairs 
were placed along the front for the accommodation 
of the people. In all there were about fifty foreign- 
ers, and thirty Chinese ponies that looked like a lot of 
poorly-kept farm horses. It was evident from their 
appearance that they had never been combed nor 
brushed, but they all had been washed and had new 
white bridles and saddles. Each was put on the scales 
and weighed. The riders went through the same per- 
formance, and those who fell short of the standard 
weight had lead sewed in their pockets to make up the 
deficit. The riders, with one or two exceptions, were 
Englishmen and the owners of the ponies, and called 
themselves gentlemen jockeys. When they mounted 
they simply stepped over the backs of the diminutive 
steeds, which, in fact, were so small that it was neces- 
sary for the rider to perch his feet up on the sides or 
let them sail out behind in most ridiculous fashion. 
One of the riders had his saddle turned on the home 
stretch, and his weight rolled the pony over into the 
ditch. The big Englishman covered the ditch for at 
least six feet, but the pony went completely out of 



96 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

sight. Some coolies lifted the little creature out and 
washed it off in a common tub, to prepare it for the 
next race. 

The grand finale, the race for the ladies' prize, 
came at last, and everyone stood on tiptoe as the po- 
nies came to the ribbons for the final start. The 
grandstand actually trembled with the excitement of 
the spectators, and coolies were called to hold it up 
lest it fall. The first pony' made a mile in five min- 
utes, the second in seven minutes, and the third in 
nine minutes. The crowd got beyond control with 
excitement over such phenomenal speed, and the offi- 
cer who owned the prize-winner was so overcome that 
he forgot to thank the lady who handed him the 
" beautiful prize," as she called the little silver match- 
safe tied with three yards of cheap pink ribbon. The 
races lasted three days, and the men and the women 
played them alike. The men who won the most money 
gave a champagne dinner to the losers and out-of- 
town horsemen, and the hotel managers served lunch- 
eons on the ground at so much per plate, but there 
were many private luncheons to " our set," for it was 
" very English, you know.'' 



CHAPTER NINE 

SHANGHAI, QUEEN OF THE EAST 

DROM Chefoo to Shanghai was rather a tedious 
trip. The boat was lightly loaded and rolled 
about a good deal. On my way to the shore I saw 
many Chinese junks with their great round eyes on 
either side of the prow, placed there so that the men 
could see the devils and keep out of their way. " No 
can see — no can sail," as the Chinese say. 

At the landing there was a great number of coolies 
waiting for the passengers, for the hotels do not send 
porters to meet the small boats. All the passengers 
with the exception of myself were residents of China. 
The coolies are able to spot the strangers at once. 
They stand back from the residents in respectful awe, 
and wait until they are asked for a wheelbarrow or a 
riksha, knowing well from past experiences what will 
happen if they are too aggressive. I was the only 
non-resident, as I have said, and moreover a woman 
alone ; so the whole crowd made for me. The licensed 
wheelbarrow coolies thrust their great red cards with 
black numbers into my face,* to hold as security for 
the delivery of my baggage, while a dozen or more 
riksha coolies stood on either side ready to seize my 
hand-bag and haul me off to the hotel. One of the 

97 



98 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

officers of the ship had come to see us safely landed, 
and seeing my plight, he came to my rescue and sent 
a half dozen of my tormentors rolling down the hill. 
I had no more trouble after that, and soon had my 
baggage loaded onto a wheelbarrow; a most cumber- 
some conveyance, but the only means of transporta- 
tion among the common people. They take a wheel- 
barrow for a pleasure ride, just as the better classes 
take a riksha or a carriage, and one often sees a China- 
man and his five or six wives and two or three pigs 
seated on a wheelbarrow going to market. The 
squeaking of the ungreased wheels as they roll along 
the streets is almost enough to give one nervous 
prostration. 

I found the Astor House much enlarged and im- 
proved since it had been sold to a stock company, but 
those who stopped there when it was owned and run 
by Mrs. Jansen, greatly missed both her and her esti- 
mable family. I have never met more charming 
people anywhere. The foreign settlements are situ- 
ated along the Bund, a wide pretty street in front of 
the harbor. There is no general city government; 
the English and the American settlements have 
united under one set of governing laws, while the 
French have their own. All, however, have their 
separate post offices. 

There are more English than any other foreigners 
and Shanghai is as British as though it were a colony 
of Great Britain. The English settlement calls itself 



SHANGHAI, QUEEN OF THE EAST 99 

the " Model Settlement." Its streets are as clean as 
a floor, it is well governed and guarded by no less 
than three different nationalities. The tall, dark- 
skinned sikhs from India are the most noticeable of 
these policemen, with twenty yards of cloth wrapped 
round their heads into a huge turban. The English 
settlement would like to be considered very demo- 
cratic, for it is always poking fun at the snobbery 
of Hongkong, thereby leading one to infer that this 
form of petty vanity is unknown in Shanghai. The 
following will illustrate the extent of their democracy 
and lack of snobbery: 

Many of the captains and officers of the different 
steamship lines live in Shanghai, but as soon as the 
boat comes up to the dock, the "lands-people," as 
the smart set call themselves, never speak to the ship- 
ping people, who constitute a distinct society of their 
own, and innkeepers, shopkeepers and their families 
are not eligible to this choice circle either. It is very 
evident that the majority of the English people liv- 
ing in Shanghai belonged to the middle classes and 
had to work hard for a living in their own country, 
but when they come to China and make a little money 
they are so set up that they treat their less fortunate 
countrymen with utter contempt. 

At four o'clock in the afternoon the smart set come 
out for a drive on the Bund, the Nankin Road, the 
Moloon Road and the Bubbling Well Road, not in 
rikshas, for these are no longer used by the smart set, 



100 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

but in full-size carriages that look ..very cumbersome 
and heavy for the little Chinese ponies. The most 
ridiculous sight is the livery of the coachman and 
tiger. I thought the first carriage I saw thus at- 
tended was some kind of an oriental show, and was 
greatly surprised when I found that the person in the 
carriage belonged to the smart set of Shanghai, and 
that my lady was very proud of the livery of her 
coachmen, having spent many days in racking her 
brain to create the hideous garb. 

Time never weighs heavily upon the hands of the 
English settlement, for they have various ways of 
disposing of their leisure hours. There is a fine club- 
house where they meet for social intercourse, and 
those who enjoy "outdoor sports have a variety of 
diversions to choose from. The races occur twice a 
year on a fine race course near the Moloon Road, and 
once a year the boat races take place. Then there is 
a polo ground, tennis courts, golf links, baseball, and 
cricket grounds, besides any number of private din- 
ners and balls. 

I visited Old Chinatown in Shanghai. On this 
occasion, as I entered the gate, I saw three or four 
lepers on either side of it, who were there to beg. It 
was a disgusting sight but one must expect all these 
things when visiting Chinatown. An old Chinaman 
who lived near the gate acted as my guide, and we 
walked for three hours through the narrow winding 
streets, the roofs of the houses often meeting over our 




The Bund, Shanghai 




A Street in Chinatown-, Shanghai 



SHANGHAI, QUEEN OF THE EAST 101 

heads. There were hundreds of little shops that con- 
tained many pretty things. I went to see one of the 
largest opium dens in the old city. There were some 
fifteen or twenty Chinamen lying around on mats, 
with their heads resting on wooden pillows. Gen- 
erally on each mat there were two who lay facing 
each other with a lighted lamp between them. They 
take a piece of opium, make it into a ball and stick it 
onto a long hollow pipe, which they turn upside down 
over the lamp while they inhale the fumes. In the 
streets of Shanghai one can see Chinamen going 
home from the opium dens almost falling out of 
their rikshas as they sleep off the effects of their 
debauch. 

The costumes of the different ~classes"~of Chinese 
seen on the streets are quite striking. The well-to-do 
Chinaman's garments are made of the finest brocade 
silks, the women's trousers and sacks of the finest 
satins, and these sacks are elaborately embroidered. 
On their heads they wear a gorgeous headdress made 
of pearls. The garments of the common people, both 
men and women, are made of blue denim. 

For some time before I reached Shanghai I had 
been waiting patiently for an opportunity to turn my 
wardrobe over to the Chinese tailors of the city to be 
repaired and pressed, for my long journey had made 
it disgraceful. I found the usual number of tailors 
waiting in the halls of the hotel for the passengers 
from the steamer, and as soon as it was practicable 



102 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

for me to do so, I divided up my wardrobe among 
them for the necessary repairs. These tailors are a 
great convenience to travellers, it is true, but there 
are some disagreeable things about dealing with 
them, for you must make a hard-and-fast bargain for 
everything they do, and the amount of haggling it 
takes before a satisfactory understanding is reached 
is often very annoying. 

In some instances I have been greatly irritated by 
their constant solicitations. There was one who had 
done a good deal of work for me at different times 
when I visited Shanghai. He did his work reason- 
ably and very well, but there was simply no getting 
rid of him. No matter how many times I told him I 
required nothing more he came to see me just the 
same, as often as a dozen times a day, each time 
inquiring if I had not changed my mind, and if I did 
not want something more made. Once he took it into 
his head to sell me a Chinese sable scarf, for he could 
not sell me any more clothes. This scarf was mis- 
erably made, for the Chinese are no furriers. I told 
him repeatedly I would not buy it but he continued 
to bring it to my room and beg me to take it. At last 
I became desperate at this constant annoyance and 
locked my doors. I told my Chinese boy not to let 
him into my rooms and supposed I was rid of him 
for I did not see him for a day or two. One day, 
however, I was standing near the dressing case, when 
his face appeared in the mirror. He startled me so 



SHANGHAI, QUEEN OF THE EAST 103 

I nearly fainted for I supposed it must be his ghost; 
but turning round, there he was, smiling serenely 
and holding the piece of fur in his hand. There was 
nothing in reach but the shovel and tongs so I seized 
them and told him if he bothered me any more I 
would break every bone in his body. He got out of 
my room in a hurry, climbed through a high window 
in my bathroom and I never saw him again. This 
experience taught me that locks and keys are no 
barriers to Chinese tailors when they want to get into 
one's room to sell something. 

I was seven days in Shanghai, one day resembling 
another as much as two peas in a pod; it seemed al- 
most a useless expenditure of time to post up my 
diary, for each day, with a few exceptions, read just 
like the one before and something like this: — 

" I was awakened this morning at five by the gab- 
bling of the Chinese servants in the hall, as this is 
about the time they arrive at the hotel. Arose at six 
and unlocked all my doors. In a few minutes in 
came the boy who built the fires. Before he was 
through the room boy arrived with six o'clock tea. 
Ten minutes later the room boy returned for the 
waiter. Fell into a doze for a few moments, to be 
awakened by the bathroom boy who wanted to know 
whether I would have my bath cold or hot. Presently 
the Chinese bootblack arrived with my shoes, then the 
room boy returned with my clothing, which he had 
brushed. Now there was a general exodus of all 



104 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Chinese boys. I arose, locked my doors, took my 
bath, dressed and went to breakfast. Bought a morn- 
ing paper, after breakfast stopped in the hotel read- 
ing room for an hour or two, then returned to my 
room. Later, I left the hotel to go shopping in the 
Chinese stores, where all kinds of beautiful silks, em- 
broideries, drawn work, gold and silver jewelry and 
different kinds of silverware can be bought. Found 
many wonderful bargains but now I am beginning 
to be alarmed as to how I am going to get all my 
purchases into my trunks. Returned to the hotel for 
tiffin (the term used for luncheon in the East) ; after 
tiffin varied the program a little, and went either to 
old Chinatown or dropped into the Chinese theater 
or restaurant." 

On several afternoons I went shopping among the 
different foreign stores, for Shanghai has many of 
them and some very good ones. There is one large 
department store, three stories high, and here I went 
one afternoon to buy a pair of gloves. I was told I 
would find them on the second floor and I started to 
go up the stairs, when the manager called to me and 
said, " I am sure you are an American and I want 
you to go up in our lift, for I know you have them 
in all of your large stores." I proceeded to follow 
him to the door where he touched a button, and pres- 
ently there was a grating, squeaking sound, which I 
was told was caused by the elevator machinery for 
the damp climate is very hard oia all machinery in 




A Typical Opium Den in China 



■ 




A Chinese Court of Justice 



SHANGHAI, QUEEN OF THE EAST 105 

Shanghai. I was also told that the elevator was used 
only on extra occasions and that it had not been oiled 
for some time. At last the elevator boy succeeded in 
stopping it so that I could get in, but it was still 
squeaking worse than a Chinese wheelbarrow. We 
started, but when we were about half way up it 
stopped, and it was five minutes before it could be 
made to budge. At last we reached the upper story 
but it took another five minutes before it could be 
made to stop the right height for me to get out. I 
told the boy not to think of waiting for me for it 
would be some time before I would be ready and I 
preferred to walk down the stairs. When I came 
down the manager asked me how I liked my ride in 
their "lift" and I told him it was a dream; but I 
was careful never again to go into that store for fear 
I would be asked again to ride in the " lift." 

I hardly ever missed returning to the hotel for 
afternoon tea, which was served at four o'clock, and 
this was really the most enjoyable part of the day. 
I had some friends who usually came around to the 
hotel to take tea with me, and often they stayed to 
dinner. Among the number was a Miss Sisco, a very 
bright little lady, who was one of the associate editors 
of the Shanghai Times, the largest and most enter- 
prising newspaper in the Far East. I had first met 
her when she came to the hotel to interview me for the 
paper regarding my trip over the Great Siberian 
Railroad, and her article was one of the cleverest 



106 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

writeups I ever had. It was over two columns in 
length, and the Manila Times copied it and sent me 
several of the papers. I felt this quite a compliment 
for newspapers in the far East are not at all liberal 
with their notices of strangers. 



CHAPTER TEN 

CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 

/^\NE day while I was in Shanghai, I went to the 
^S French settlement, and lying alongside the wharf 
was the S. S. Pekin, which had carried me up the 
Yangtze River in December, 1897. The Pekin is 
owned by an English company, but it is built like an 
American river boat of about 1000 tonnage, with 
paddle wheels and walking-beam engine. On this 
occasion she was used only as a substitute while the 
boat that makes the regular run was being repaired. 
She was much too large and drew too much water 
for the conditions of the river at that time, and we 
had to stop every night and creep along in the day- 
time. It is six hundred miles from Shanghai to 
Hankow and we were over ten days making the round 
trip, which is usually made by the regular boat in half 
that time. It was fortunate for me, however, for it 
enabled me to see the river by daylight both ways. 
Although we traveled nearly all the way under dark 
skies, and raw cold winds blew- all the time, with sev- 
eral rainfalls, it was one of the most enjoyable trips 
I have ever taken. There were few passengers either 
way, and though all were at first very much disgusted 
with the delays and the slow time made by the boat, 
strange to say everybody recovered from the seeming 

107 



108 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

hurry and before we landed, expressed themselves as 
sorry that the journey had come to an end. 

Shanghai is situated on the Hwang-pu river, 
twelve miles from the mouth of the Yangtze, and it 
takes the boat about an hour to run down the river 
to the point at which the former empties into an 
estuary of the latter. The boats have some difficulty 
in passing out of the river into the open sea on ac- 
count of the sandbars at its mouth. It is only a short 
distance from here to the point where the Yangtze 
is entered, and it looks very little like a river, for it 
spreads out like an immense sea and continues this 
way for some distance. We made no ports the first 
day but as it began to get dark we stopped for the 
night and the captain said we were near " Langshan " 
crossing, one of the most dangerous places in the 
river. He said that a number of boats had been lost 
on the rocks here and that since these accidents none 
of the captains would cross it after dark. 

As soon as dinner was over all the passengers 
seated themselves around the stove in the dining 
saloon, for it was quite cold and it was not long before 
we all felt acquainted with each other. There were 
three other ladies besides myself and the first officer's 
wife, who stayed in her cabin almost all the way on 
account of ill health. Two of the ladies were mis- 
sionary doctors, one from my own town, Chicago, 
and the other from Cleveland, Ohio. Both were sta- 
tioned at Nankin and the account they gave of their 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 109 

seven years' practice among the Chinese was most 
interesting. They said that between 3000 and 4000 
Chinese were treated in their hospitals and free dis- 
pensaries each year, and that the Chinese as a race 
were not healthy, nor were they long lived. The 
women, they declared, were more unhealthy than the 
men, and they attributed the fact to the practice of 
binding the feet which prevents the blood from cir- 
culating, thereby causing the feet to become badly 
diseased and the whole body affected. 

The other lady was a young Englishwoman who 
had been to Shanghai on a visit and was returning 
home. She said her husband owned two albumen fac- 
tories at Chinkiang, and that more than half of the 
eggs used were gathered from wild fowls' nests along 
the Yangtze river. She told me I would be surprised 
at the number of these birds on the river, for often 
the boats ran into such flocks of ducks that the flap- 
ping of their wings sounded like distant thunder as 
they rose from the water. She said that the hunters 
would bring game of all kinds at the different places 
where we would land to be sold on the boat, and it 
could be bought for almost nothing, a deer often 
selling for one Mexican dollar. She explained that 
the reason why there were so many wild birds and 
animals in China was owing to the fact that the people 
were Buddhists; this religion forbids the killing of 
them, for they may be a friend or relative in the 
transmigratory state. Since foreigners have come to 



110 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

China the game has been fast disappearing, for in 
many instances the hunters have killed quantities of 
it for sport and it will not be long before it will be a 
thing of the past, for the Chinese will never have 
laws passed to prevent it. 

The next day, before I was up, the boat was under 
way and we soon came in sight of the great fortifica- 
tions at Kiangyin that stand on the right bank of the 
river surrounded by a number of hills. It is a well- 
fortified place and I was told that the Chinese receive 
their military instructions from foreigners. During 
the day several large wood rafts passed us on their 
way down the river. The wood that composed them 
was cut near the head of the Yangtze River, where 
it usually takes a year to cut it, build the raft and 
float it down the river. Many of these rafts contain 
over one hundred persons. 

The houses were built along streets that appeared 
like floating villages. Late in the afternoon a pretty 
sight was pointed out as Silver Island. It is partly 
fortified and only a short distance from Chinkiang, 
our first stopping place. Here our English lady left 
us. I found it quite an important place, for it is 
situated at the head of Grand Canal and serves as 
the shipping port for the quantities of merchandise 
which are constantly arriving from the interior. After 
leaving here we made the usual stop for the night, 
which was disappointing to the mission ladies for they 
had hoped to reach their destination before this time, 




The Emperor of China Sledging on the Lake 
in the Palace Gardens 




The Emperor's Throne Room, Pekin 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 111 

and we did not arrive at Nankin until four o'clock the 
next afternoon. 

Nankin was the southern capital during the Ming 
dynasty. Like all Chinese towns it is walled in, and 
its walls are built like those which surround Pekin, 
two walls with the space between filled with earth and 
wide enough for four or five persons to ride abreast 
on it around the city. Some of the tombs of the 
Mings are here but they are very plain compared 
with the thirteen Ming tombs situated near Pekin. 
Nankin is celebrated for the beauty of its silks, con- 
sidered the best in China, and its looms, with those of 
Soo-chow, Hang-chow and Canton, supply all the 
silk used by the Imperial family. 

The spot where once stood the famous porcelain 
pagoda of Nankin, the finest ever built in China, is 
duly pointed out to strangers. It was erected to the 
memory of his mother by the Emperor Yung-loh who 
ascended the throne in 1403 and devoted nineteen of 
the twenty-two years of his reign to the erection of 
this pagoda. It was a nine-storied octagon, 279 feet 
in height, and cost a million dollars. This pagoda 
stood for nearly five hundred years and was destroyed 
at the time of the uprising of the Taipings in 1856. 
Nankin is one of the most important cities in China. 
Though situated some distance from the place where 
the boats land, it can be plainly seen. It is well 
fortified and usually there are a number of war ships 
in the harbor for protection. 



118 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

After leaving Nankin we again stopped for the 
night and I was the only passenger on board. The 
first officer's wife had now recovered from her illness 
and she was able to be at the table and to sit with me 
a short time after dinner. She said her long stay in 
China had completely broken down her health; and 
though she was a native of Australia, she had found 
the climate of China much more unhealthy. This 
seemed strange, for Australia has a fearful climate 
very much like that of China only the seasons are 
reversed, with December and January the hot, sultry 
months, and July and August the cool, damp ones. 
This lady had been a beauty at one time, but ill 
health had marred her looks. Nearly all the women 
of Australia are pretty, but they fade young, and in 
many instances both the men and the women have a 
full set of false teeth at the age of eighteen or 
twenty — a fact attributed to the lime in the water. 

Before noon the next day we had arrived at Wuhu. 
This is the great rice port and there were many ships 
loaded with this commodity, to be shipped to other 
parts of China. It is not allowed to be exported, for 
China has never been able to raise enough for her 
own dense population, and quantities of it are shipped 
into the country every year. 

On the way to Kiukiang, our next stopping place, 
we passed a rather strange but pretty sight, two 
pyramidal rocks that rose out of the river to the 
Height of about two hundred feet, called the " Little 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 113 

Orphans." Though they had the appearance of being 
very steep, a pretty little temple, almost hidden by 
the green foliage of the trees, was nestling near the 
top, while on the summit was a small house which had 
been built as a summer resort by a rich Chinaman. 

Kiukiang is the place where most of the finest egg- 
shell china is manufactured, but I found the potteries 
were so far from the landing I could not visit them. 
The largest building in the place was the Roman 
Catholic Mission. It was painted white and stood 
facing the landing, its high clock tower visible at some 
distance from the shore. Here the hunters came to 
the boat with loads of game which the stewards 
bought for almost nothing, and reminded me of what 
the English lady had said about the game along the 
Yangtze. For days after we left here we simply 
feasted on game, — silver and gold pheasants, snipes, 
deer and several kinds of duck. There was a great 
change in the scenery after leaving Kiukiang. On 
either side of the river were high green hills that were 
much more pleasing to the eye than the low, marshy 
country we had been passing through, where the hills 
and mountains could be but faintly discerned in the 
distance. 

We arrived at Hankow about ten o'clock the next 
morning and my first impression of the place was not 
at all favorable. The town had a dirty, forlorn look 
and it took me some time to realize that it was the 
most important business place along the Yangtze 



114 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

river, and that more than half the tea raised in China 
is bought and shipped through this port. The Rus- 
sians now monopolize the tea business, formerly car- 
ried on by the English, the most interesting feature 
of which is the two large factories where tea dust is 
pressed into bricks, and a letter of introduction to 
the manager of one of these factories gave me an 
opportunity to see how these are made. 

The dust tea is first thoroughly steamed and then 
put into strong wooden molds and subjected to 
hydraulic pressure. It is not removed until thor- 
oughly cool, when it is pressed into two sizes of 
bricks, the largest ten inches long, six inches wide 
and one inch thick. This size is made from the 
medium qualities of tea, while the small size, which 
is five inches long, two and one-half wide, and one 
thick, is made from the finer qualities. The bricks 
are securely packed into bamboo baskets, of a size 
that can be easily carried by mules and camels, and 
sent overland to Russia. At first brick tea was made 
only from dust and offal, but it became such a paying 
business that now almost all the tea is ground and 
put up in this form. 

Hankow's hotel at this time was a small, indiffer- 
ently kept place. It was run by an Englishman and 
his wife who were typical London boarding-house 
keepers such as Charles Dickens so graphically de- 
scribes. It was the manager of this hotel who intro- 
duced me to a Mr. Everall, a young Englishman who 




Crushing Tea. 
The Method Used in Preparing it for Market 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 115 

did business along the Yangtze for a firm in 
Shanghai. The manager said this young man would 
give me much valuable information, for he knew not 
only every foot of the river but a great part of China. 
All this I found to be true, and that he was a veritable 
encyclopaedia of China, a graduate of Oxford and 
spoke five languages fluently, including Chinese and 
many of its dialects. When I apologized for my in- 
trusion in taking up his valuable time, he laughed 
and said he was always pleased to answer the ques- 
tions of strangers, and there was only one thing he 
considered unpardonable in either a friend or a 
stranger, and that was a long letter. I assured him 
that I had not contemplated writing him any letters 
at all, but if I should ever do so, and could not get 
all I had to say on one page, I would send my letter 
in installments, as they do bank notes in India; they 
cut them in two and send half one day and the other 
half a day or two later. He said that was rather a 
clever idea, and, to use an Amercan expression, " I 
guess I could stand them if I got them that way." 

The account he gave me of Hankow and the coun- 
try along the Yangtze was exceedngly interesting. 
He was very enthusiastic over Hankow and said it 
would be only a short time before it would be one of 
the greatest cities in China. He referred to its fine 
situation on the left bank of the river in the province 
of Hupeh, at a point where the Han river flows into 
the Yangtze from the northwest. It was from this 



116 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

tributary, he said, that the town derived its name, for 
literally translated Hankow meant " The mouth of 
the Han." 

Directly across this small river there is an equally 
large city known as Hunyang, and opposite these 
two cities on the south, or right bank of the river, is 
Wuchang, the provincial capital of Hupeh, where 
the celebrated Viceroy, Chang-chi-tung, rules his 
people. These three cities form a tremendous center 
and they are noted for their manufacturing industries, 
which are the most important in China. 

At Hanyang there are large iron-smelting and 
steel-rail roller-mills, and a modern arsenal for the 
manufacture of Mauser rifles and Hotchkiss quick- 
firing cannon. These are owned by the government 
and they are a great source of revenue to the officers 
who have them in charge, from the highest to the 
lowest, for the Chinese have a way of speculating in 
things owned by the government. 

Wuchang has not only several government cotton 
mills, that furnish cotton cloth for the natives in 
western China, but the mint, which is fitted up with 
the latest foreign machinery and supplies the province 
with silver coins and copper cash, is also situated 
there. Mr. Everall declared that neither of these 
cities had kept pace with Hankow, which could justly 
be called the Chicago of China. This comparison 
made me smile, for I failed to see any similarity be- 
tween the two places. Seeing my incredulity, he said, 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 117 

" The comparison will be more realistic upon com- 
pletion of the Grand Trunk Railroad Line from 
Pekin to Hankow, which is to be extended to Canton 
and will then open up the richest and most productive 
part of China, greatly increasing thereby the trade 
of Hankow. Every year there is an increase in its 
foreign population, and now Great Britain, Russia, 
France, Germany and Japan have valuable conces- 
sions here. Our river frontage is greatly marred by 
floating warehouses called hulks, where steamers dis- 
charge their cargoes. These you saw at all the ports 
where the boats stop on their way up the river, but 
it is to be hoped that in time they will be done away 
with and wharves will be built in their stead. 

" Running parallel with the river," he continued, 
" is the Bund, a large well-paved street, which is the 
grand promenade for Hankow's population after 
sundown on a hot summer evening, for no public 
gardens or parks have yet been laid out. Facing the 
Bund is Be-tred Road where all the finest foreign 
dwellings are situated. The other noticeable build- 
ings are two clubs, a municipal building and a large 
Roman Catholic convent. A new hotel will soon be 
built and it will be under French management. You 
will find the streets in the native walled-in town very 
narrow and thronged with people passing in streams 
attending to their various vocations. It is astonishing 
to watch with what ease a coolie, carrying a cumber- 
some load or a sedan chair, or pushing a broad wheel- 



118 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

barrow, can penetrate the dense mass of humanity. 
The shops, with their counters facing the streets and 
their smiling assistants behind them, combined with 
the different wares displayed for sale, present a very 
picturesque scene, and one becomes enchanted with 
the business-like air of its surroundings. But for the 
smells and the squeaks of tortured pigs dangling by 
their feet from a bamboo pole over the shoulders of 
the Celestials on their way to market, one could almost 
forget that he is in the heart of this corrupt and 
decaying China." 

In one of the streets are a lot of hand looms of 
the most primitive kind on which the Chinese weave 
a fine silk plush that is much sought after by Euro- 
pean ladies for cloaks and jackets. I told Mr. Everall 
it was here that I came near losing my life ; for when 
I got off my sedan chair to inspect the looms, two or 
three hundred Chinamen flocked round me out of 
curiosity and pinched my cheeks, looked at my skirts 
and wanted me to take off my shoes so they could try 
them on. They took the gloves off my hands, and 
when I succeeded in getting back to my chair they 
were still trying them on. I was glad to let them keep 
them for it kept their curiosity in check until I got 
away. I was not as enthusiastic about Hankow's 
Chinatown as the young Englishman was for, after 
spending half a day in its crowded streets and being 
jostled about, I was delighted to get out of it. 

Although the steamer did not leave until after ten 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 119 

P. M. I went on board as soon after dinner as possi- 
ble, for the Chicago of China at this time, with all 
its great advancement, had not its streets lighted. I 
wanted to make the journey while there was some 
daylight left, but even at this early hour it was a very 
hard matter to see where I was going, for almost as 
soon as the sun set there was such a fog it was pitch 
dark. 

At breakfast the next morning there was the same 
number of ship's officers, — Captain Downie, Chief 
Engineer Mitchell, the first officer, Mr. Sparks, his 
wife and the two pilots, and there was one other first- 
class passenger besides myself, and that was the 
young Englishman, Mr. Everall, who had been 
hastily summoned by the firm he represented to re- 
turn to Shanghai. 

After the usual morning greetings we all began 
to admire the dining saloon which had been tastefully 
decorated with evergreens, banners and mottoes dur- 
ing the time we had been on shore, for the Christmas 
festivities were about to take place. On the sideboard 
stood the Christmas cake. It was made by the head 
steward under the captain's direction, and they were 
both very proud of it and the way it was iced. After 
we had finished breakfast we all went up " top-side," 
as the Chinamen say, to enjoy the view, for this was 
the prettiest part of the river and the sun had come 
out for a few hours and made everything bright and 
cheerful including ourselves. 



120 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

At five in the afternoon we reached Kiukiang, 
which, the young Englishman said, literally trans- 
lated meant "nine rivers." He also informed us it 
was a place of considerable note, with two large Rus- 
sian tea factories, and that it was extensively visited 
during the summer months, for the Europeans had 
built many hotels and houses on Mt. Ruling, which 
is 4000 feet in height and situated ten miles from the 
town. It is the summer resort of the people living in 
Shanghai, who much prefer journeying up the river 
to crossing the Yellow Sea to escape the terrible 
heat for which that locality is noted. 

Just as the whistle blew for all to be on board, we 
saw a well-dressed gentleman, with satchel in hand, 
making a frantic effort to get on board before the 
boat loosened itself from the hulk. It proved to be 
a Dr. Glendenning, who had been in Kiukiang to 
make arrangements for moving his family there, 
where he intended to follow his profession. He came 
from good old Irish stock, though born in Australia, 
and though he proved to be remarkably clever and 
splendid company, he was always referred to by the 
boat's officer and the young Englishman as " a Colo- 
nial," a term not enjoyed by all the Great Britain's 
colonists. 

I once met a Canadian whose ancestors had been 
natives of that country for several generations, and 
who had been brought up with all the broad-minded 
ideas of a true American. He said the people in 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 121 

Canada have the same doleful way of calling Eng- 
land home that they have in China, but in many in- 
stances it is simply force of habit, for they care 
nothing whatever for the mother country. He said 
he had never fully realized how inferior the Britishers 
considered the " Colonials " until he came to China. 
Falling ill of typhoid fever, he went to a hospital in 
Shanghai, and when he was able to sit up the matron 
came to see him. One of her first questions was, 
" Where are you from? " and when he told her she 
curled her lip disdainfully and said, " Oh, you are a 
Colonial." He said it so angered him that for several 
days he was much worse and felt like telling her that 
he considered himself superior to any Englishman 
ever born. 

The next thing that attracted our attention as we 
went down the river was Kiukiang's Pagoda, for it is 
one of the finest along the Yangtze River. These 
pagodas are usually built with an odd number of 
stories, for the Chinese believe there is luck in odd 
numbers. Pagoda building was introduced into 
China from India, and they were built first, as the 
dagobas were in that country, to cover some of the 
sacred ashes of Buddha, but afterwards they were 
used as receptacles for the ashes of saints and priests. 

In about two hours we were in sight of the " Little 
Orphans," for no matter how often one goes up and 
down the river one always watches for the sight of 
these two pyramidal rocks, they appear so majestic 



122 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

standing in the middle of the river. As the " Little 
Orphans " faded out of sight it began to grow dark, 
and the usual stop was made for the night. At dinner 
that evening we had rather an exciting time, for the 
doctor, who had been in China only a short time, in- 
sisted that the British part of Shanghai was under the 
control of the British government, and that it was a 
colony and not a settlement. The chief engineer, 
who had been in China for over thirty years, contra- 
dicted this statement and told him that it was known 
as the " Model Settlement," and that it was independ- 
ent of the British government. The argument at one 
time became very warm, but in the end it was regarded 
as a great joke and the doctor enjoyed it as much as 
the rest of us. No doubt what made him so positive 
was the way the British government has of treating 
the " Model Settlement " ; for only a few years ago it 
sent a number of fine field guns for their protection 
and every year it sends them an allowance of ammuni- 
tion. 

The next day was Christmas and it was the j oiliest, 
funniest Christmas I ever spent. Although the 
weather was cold and we almost froze in our cabins, 
the dining saloon was warm and we spent most of the 
day there feasting and telling stories. 

We did not have turkey for dinner, but we had 
golden pheasant, and never do I remember tasting 
such a delicious fowl, though it was only one of 
the many good things we had. We sat long at the 




A Chinese Pagoda on the Yangtze River 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 123 

table and there were many toasts and stories. The 
doctor of course was always in the lead for there was 
simply no end to his Irish wit. The chief engineer 
told some funny old Scotch stories too that made us 
laugh heartily, and so the day passed. 

In the evening the captain gave us a splendid little 
supper ; but when the fun was at its height he said, in 
a very solemn voice, " Let us change the program and 
each one in turn tell what he considered the greatest 
mistake of his life." Suiting the action to the word, 
he said that he considered his to be the fact that he 
had married, late in life, a young and beautiful 
woman, and had a number of sweet children whom he 
never would live to rear and educate, and who must 
necessarily be a great burden to his charming wife. 
The captain's story put an end to all the fun, and the 
chief engineer followed it with the tale of his family 
experiences. He said he had to find some object to 
love after the death of his wife some years before, and 
that ever since then he had kept in his cabin a little cat 
which he loved to care for as though it were the most 
precious thing on earth and which he had never even 
so much as allowed his servant to touch. 

It was growing late and we bade each other good- 
night; but before leaving someone jokingly said to the 
chief engineer, " Chief, don't blow us up in the morn- 
ing when you start the boat." He laughed, and pre- 
tended to be a bit indignant; but sure enough, through 
some unavoidable accident, we were nearly blown up 



124 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

the next morning, and this necessitated our anchoring, 
to blow off steam, cool the boilers and effect repairs, 
which kept the engineer busy for over twenty-four 
hours. The doctor did a good deal of fidgeting about 
the delay and a good deal of talking about stopping 
some of the steamers and continuing his journey in 
one of them, but we coaxed him not to do so for we 
were loath to part with his good company. 

Our first stop after we again got under way was 
Wuhu, a dismal place at any time, but now doubly so 
for it was raining hard. The young Englishman 
said that most people were greatly pleased with the 
name " Wuhu," but that he never stopped there with- 
out experiencing a desire to cry and rename it " Boo- 
hoo." 

When we arrived at Nankin it was late and still 
raining, so we only waited long enough to get the 
mail. There were the same experiences at nearly all 
the other stopping places, and after a rather long 
journey we arrived at seven o'clock one evening at 
Shanghai, where we all left the boat and took rikshas. 
We were together until about half way down the 
Bund, when each took a different direction, and that 
was the last time we were ever together again. 

It is now five years since I took this eventful trip, 
and during this time I have visited China three times, 
inquiring on each occasion for those who accompanied 
me. On one of my visits I met four of the party but 
the last time, when I made my usual inquiries, I was 



CITIES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER 125 

pained to learn that the captain had died, according to 
his predictions, and that the chief engineer had also 
joined his beloved wife in the beyond. The chief 
officer and his wife lived in Shanghai and he had been 
appointed to fill the captain's place on the steamship 
Pekin. The doctor was still living in Kiukiang, where 
he had built up a large practice, the young English- 
man was doing business for an American firm in 
Hankow, and still enjoying single blessedness, though 
the belles of Shanghai and Yangtze had vied with 
each other for some years in the effort to determine 
which of them would be lucky enough to catch him. 
My informant told me that Hankow had greatly in- 
creased its foreign population, and that I would never 
know the place, there were so many new buildings and 
improvements. The railroad was running between 
Hankow and Pekin, but had not been completed to 
Canton. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 

ON THE CHINA SEA 

T)ROBABLY there is nothing in China that excites 
■*■ the curiosity of strangers more than the foot- 
binding practiced among the women, and at no place 
do you see more of it than in Shanghai. When the 
practice began is not known, for it is probably as old 
as the Chinese empire ; and, though many writers have 
tried to account for its origin, nothing is definitely 
known of it. One writer asserts that it was introduced 
for the purpose of keeping the women at home and 
stopping their gossip among their neighbors. It is 
now considered a mark of great beauty, that is much 
admired by the Chinese men. A rich Chinese mer- 
chant brought his wives to me that I might see their 
tiny feet. "Most too smalle," he said, "velly 
pretty ! " I was told that if the parents, in many in- 
stances, omitted to bind the baby girls' feet, they 
would do it themselves when they were old, and the 
suffering would be much greater. 

The foot is most unsightly when uncovered; the 
pointed, embroidered shoe, silk stocking and the long 
piece of cloth used to bind it and prevent its growing, 
cover indeed a multitude of sinning against nature. 
The small toes are turned under and next the sole of 

126 




Bound Feet Uncovered 



ON THE CHINA SEA 127 

the foot, leaving only the great toe and the heel, which, 
becoming greatly enlarged, loses its natural appear- 
ance and resembles the heel of a shoe. The instep 
rises into a hideous lump, and the weight of the body 
is borne on the big toe and the heel, which renders 
many of the women incapable of walking, and they 
have to be carried by servants. 

When one goes to China one must learn pigeon 
English, for this is the only means of being under- 
stood by the coolies. There is only one written 
Chinese language, but every province has its own 
dialect; and, though these different localities may be 
but a short distance apart, one set of Chinamen can- 
not understand the other, so foreigners have adopted 
pigeon English as a means of communication with 
them all. I learned only a few words but there is an 
extensive vocabulary at the disposal of those who wish 
to accomplish the linguistic feat of mastering it. 
There are a few typical expressions : When you wish 
a Chinaman to hurry up you say " Chop-chop." 
When you call upon a friend, you ask " Master have 
got? " If he is in, the boy answers " Yes; " but if he 
is out he says " Have no got." If you wish a China- 
man to go upstairs you say " Go up top-side." They 
say " Can do," " No can do," and " No sabee," when 
they do not understand. " Chit " is another word 
used all through the East, and means a bill, a card or 
a note. A female servant is called " Oma." 

I was now traveling on the Hongkong Maru. It 



128 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

made very good time, and on the third morning after 
leaving Shanghai dropped anchor in the beautiful 
blue waters of the harbor at Hongkong, the great 
naval fortress of the English in the East. It is a 
free port and one feels a sense of relief on landing, 
to discover the absence of the usual lot of impudent 
customs house officers who tear one's baggage to 
pieces and blandly say they are " sorry to make so 
much trouble, but they are only carrying out the re- 
quirements of the law." 

From the steamer's deck you have a fine view of the 
city. The portion that lies along the harbor is called 
Victoria, though few strangers know it by this name, 
for it is usually called Hongkong, the name of the 
island. The city has a population of 260,000, of 
whom 12,000 are foreigners of different nationalities. 
It is a very cosmopolitan place, the streets crowded 
with people from very part of the globe. 

Hotel accommodations are difficult to get, although 
there are a number of large hotels, and new ones are 
constantly being built. The hotel proprietors are 
very independent and if you go to the office to make a 
complaint you are told they will send the coolies up 
for your baggage and you had better look elsewhere 
for accommodations. I always stop at the Hong- 
kong Hotel, for this is considered the best. In the 
dining room there are about fifty Chinese waiters all 
wearing long white linen tunics. The different dishes 
on the menu are numbered both in Chinese and Eng- 



ON THE CHINA SEA 129 

lish numerals, and you point to the number to desig- 
nate what you wish, for the Chinese cannot read 
English. Each dish is brought in separately, and a 
novel sight it is to see these white-robed Celestials 
prancing round the room, getting in each other's way 
and often running into the guests. The head waiters 
are Chinamen dressed in stiff brocaded silk, and they 
walk around as though half asleep. They are rich, 
for all the " cumshaw " (tips given the waiters) are 
turned over to them to keep as their part of the 
" squeeze " for getting the waiter his position. 

Hotel prices have advanced threefold during the 
last five years, since the Americans have been going 
to the Philippines. There has been a great change 
in this respect both in China and Japan. Chairs, 
rikshas and an electric tram car line that runs through 
both the foreign and native town are the means of 
transportation. The shipping of Hongkong is ex- 
tensive, and boats are constantly arriving and de- 
parting to all parts of the world. The harbor is al- 
ways full of Chinese junks and sampans, with thou- 
sands of Chinese living on them. 

Rising majestically behind the city of Victoria is 
the Peak, the highest hill on the island. At its high- 
est point, about 1,800 feet, is the signal station where 
the arrival of ocean steamers is announced by hoisting 
a flag and firing a cannon. It is the summer resort 
of the Hongkong people, and when it is unbearably 
hot in the city below you can sleep under blankets on 



130 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

the Peak. Two large hotels and hundreds of houses 
are situated on it, and the view is marvelous* especially 
at night, when the harbor and the city, with its 
thousands of lights, give the impression of myraids of 
twinkling stars fallen from the skies. By daylight 
the view over the harbor and the islands is equally as 
fine. There are two ways of reaching the summit, 
one by a steam tram that runs up and down every 
fifteen minutes, the other by sedan chairs. The Gov- 
ernor General resides in a fine palace on a broad 
terrace half way up the Peak. 

The society of Hongkong is divided into sets, and 
there is constant strife among them for the honor of 
being entitled to an invitation to the Governor's house. 
At the hotels and the most informal gatherings every 
one appears in full dress, and this colony is considered 
one of the most straight laced and snobbish of all that 
belong to Great Britain. Women who work in for- 
eign stores are brought out from England, under con- 
tract to remain for a term of years with their em- 
ployers, and as there are many single men among the 
foreign population, both in Hongkong and China, 
matrimony is a plant that flourishes in the Far East. 

Many Englishmen set up housekeeping with a 
Chinese or Japanese woman, who combines the office 
of wife, housekeeper and servant in one. In some in- 
stances they marry these women, but more often they 
abandon them after a number of children have been 
born, and in consequence many half castes are to be 



ON THE CHINA SEA 131 

seen here. With all the disadvantages which Hong- 
kong may suffer from climate and other causes, it is 
a pretty place and it has been truthfully said, " There 
is but one Hongkong and one Peak." 

As the Pitseanuloha would sail for Bangkok at 
daylight, it was necessary for me to go on board the 
night before. Arriving at the steamer I was met by 
the captain, who informed me that I would be his only 
passenger, and that he had instructed his Chinese 
steward to look after my various wants and see that I 
was made comfortable. At the same time he excused 
himself as he, with the first and second mate, were to 
dine with friends on shore, and hence I found myself 
quite alone. There was not a sound but the heavy 
tread of the watchman at one end of the boat, and at 
the other the rattling of dominoes, with which the 
Chinese stewards were gambling, apparently improv- 
ing the opportunity afforded by the absence of the 
captain. I went to the upper deck and found it 
scrubbed white as snow. In the center was a table 
with an electric drop light, and there were a number 
of long reclining bamboo chairs for the use of the pas- 
sengers. On more pretentious steamers I have found 
greatly inferior accommodations. I had supposed 
there was not a living thing on deck, but as I was 
making my last round I heard the mew of a cat and 
the bark of a dog. Looking around to see whence 
the noise came, I saw under a chair two cats, and 
on the stairs a dog, which followed me to the brightly 



132 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

lighted cabin below where I discovered that the cats 
were about half grown and very thin. Canned milk 
did not agree with them, the cabin boy said. One cat 
was a common black and white one while the other 
was a pure Siamese, with a coat of remarkable color- 
ing, shaded from the most delicate cream to a seal 
brown, its feet and the end of its tail coal black. It 
had light blue eyes with that soft dreamy expression 
so often seen in Orientals. A beautiful animal is 
more admired than the plainer ones, and the Siamese 
cat which was no exception to the rule, received more 
dainty bits than the common one, but the latter had 
the keenest eyes ever set in a cat's head, and she at- 
tended strictly to business. She was the first of the 
three on the ship and she gave all the newcomers to 
understand that she was monarch of all she surveyed. 
The dog was of some common breed, white and very 
small, and he was the last addition to the ship's family. 
The common cat was very angry when the dog ar- 
rived and kept him in hiding for many days. Every 
time he made his appearance she would walk down the 
deck on her hind feet soundly thrashing the poor little 
creature. The Siamese cat was inclined to be friendly 
to the dog but the common cat gave her a good 
whipping and taught her to whip the dog also, who 
would stand on his hind legs and beg in the most piti- 
ful way to be protected from them. Their method 
was to stand at either door, just under the sill, so the 
dog could not see them, and when he jumped into the 




Beauty and the Beast 



ON THE CHINA SEA 133 

saloon they would assail him from both sides of the 
room. It made no difference where the poor little 
fellow went his feline enemies were watching, ready 
to pounce upon him and claw him. I took the part 
of the oppressed little canine and the common cat was 
disposed to fight me for my chivalry and teach me not 
to meddle with what she considered her business. For 
days I watched these creatures with the greatest in- 
terest. I had never before thought animals possessed 
thinking powers, but I am convinced that that com- 
mon cat could reason out things with a precision that 
would puzzle her superiors. She seemed to realize 
that the Siamese cat, like the Siamese people, was 
weak and easily influenced, and that she had to act 
for her. 



SIAM AND SINGAPORE 



CHAPTER TWELVE 

BANGKOK, A MODERNIZED CITY 

rpHE ships plying between Bangkok and Hong- 
*■ kong are employed the year around in carrying 
the rice crop of Siam to Hongkong, whence it is re- 
shipped to Canton, where the greater part of it is con- 
sumed. There is little merchandise to take back to 
Siam and the ships have nothing but their ballast to 
hold them down, which is quite insufficient, for most 
of the way is across currents and it would be hard to 
find rougher seas. 

It was not until the Gulf of Siam was reached that 
we found smooth sailing. The weather was growing 
warm day by day until it became very oppressive. 
The distance between Hongkong and Bangkok is 
1455 miles, and it takes nearly five days to make the 
trip. The first glimpses of Siamese territory are the 
many green islands situated in the Gulf of Siam, 
some of which are very pretty and serve as resorts of 
the Bangkok people. 

As the boat enters the mouth of the Menam river 
one sees two forts well equipped with modern devices 
of war for the defense of the river, the banks of which 
are low and swampy and covered with coarse grass. 
You soon notice the ship is rising in the water, and 
the captain tells you he is lightening the ballast, hop- 

137 



138 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

ing to cross the bar just below Bangkok where many 
vessels are stranded for days, the mud piling up 
around them until one could get out and walk about 
the ship. Fortunately the high tide usually floats 
them off. The channel is constantly changing and it 
is almost impossible to navigate it without a pilot who 
understands the current. 

Not very far up the river a huge Buddhist temple 
comes in sight, built on an island in the middle of the 
stream, which is so level it appears to float upon the 
water. As seen from the deck of the steamers this 
temple is very picturesque, with its white spires and 
many-colored tiles shimmering in the sun. A little 
farther along you perceive boats with houses built 
upon them, moored to the banks on either side. Many 
of these floating houses are shops filled with different 
kinds of merchandise with people in small boats shop- 
ping among them. At night the river presents a 
splendid sight for these boats are brilliantly lighted 
and there are hundreds of shoppers and pleasure seek- 
ers on the river. 

Never was I so astonished as when I arrived at 
Bangkok and found that I had been laboring under 
several misapprehensions. I had heard much about 
the filth of the place and that it was so hot eggs would 
cook in the shade. What was more, I was told after 
I arrived that eggs would hatch if you laid them in 
the sun; but this I cannot vouch for, as I did not see 
them hatching, nor can I vouch for the reputed size 




Boat Life on the River, Bangkok, Siam, 

Wat Chang, or Golden Mountain in the Distance 




Siamese Actors 



BANGKOK, A MODERNIZED CITY 139 

of the mosquitoes. It is true that Bangkok is hot, and 
that there are plenty of mosquitoes, but there are just 
as many in other parts of the world and there are hun- 
dreds of oriental cities much dirtier. It has been so 
modernized in the last few years that it has not the 
appearance of an oriental town, but resembles a well- 
built foreign city. The streets have been widened 
and greatly improved, and there is an electric tram 
car running through the main street that is mostly 
patronized by the native people. There are a number 
of wide avenues and boulevards and some twenty miles 
of good driveways in and around Bangkok. The last 
addition is Dusit Park, of which the King is very 
proud, and in which he is building a palace for him- 
self and the Crown Prince. This park is laid out 
with wide boulevards, and when the trees grow larger 
it will be a charming place. 

I have never visited an oriental city where I was so 
well entertained, nor one where I enjoyed myself so 
well as I did at Bangkok. I had not been an hour at 
the Oriental Hotel when an evening paper containing 
a notice of my arrival was handed me, and soon after 
the American Minister, Mr. King, called with his 
family, and most charming people I found them. 
They arranged my sightseeing in Siam, a kindness 
which I highly appreciated, for it made my stay ex- 
tremely pleasant as well as interesting, and, besides, 
they gave me so much information that it would have 
been difficult for me to have obtained otherwise. 



140 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

I shall not attempt to give a description of the 
many wats, or Buddhist temples, for there are hun- 
dreds of them in Bangkok, and I visited only the 
largest and those most noted. Some of them cover 
acres of ground, surrounded by monasteries where the 
monks and priests live, who may be seen at a very 
early hour dressed in yellow robes and going from 
house to house collecting their supplies of food for 
the day. 

Some of the old wats have their inside walls and 
doors finely inlaid with mother of pearl, but this kind 
of work is no longer done here and it is impossible to 
find a modern piece of inlaid work in Siam ; it has be- 
come a lost art. It cannot be said that the workman- 
ship of many of the wats is finely done, but the form 
of their spires and domes and their strange coloring 
make them very effective, and when seen from a dis- 
tance they are wonderfully beautiful. 

There is only one spot in Bangkok high enough to 
command a view of the city, and this is an artificial 
mountain called " Golden Mountain," with wat 
Chang built on its summit. It is two hundred feet 
in height and situated some distance from the busi- 
ness part of the city. Most of the wats are along the 
river and canals in the prettiest part of the town, and 
this enables their devotees to reach them by boat for 
they were built before the electric cars, carriages and 
rikshas, when the only means of transportation was by 
water. There are many canals running through 




A "Wat," or Temple 



BANGKOK, A MODERNIZED CITY 141 

Bangkok, and some of them are pretty with thousands 
of people living on them in boats. 

I was fortunate in arriving in Bangkok in time for 
the King's procession to the wats, which occurs once a 
year when the King delivers the robes to the high 
priests. It is called the procession of Thot Krathin, 
and certainly it was one of the finest oriental proces- 
sions I have ever witnessed. Never had I seen any- 
thing to compare with the three royal barges. They 
were over one hundred feet in length and almost cov- 
ered with gold trimmed with red. These barges were 
rowed by eighty men dressed in red with eighty golden 
paddles that were lifted and dropped in perfect 
rhythm, a man sitting in the prow of the boat beating 
time. The King sat in the first barge smiling to the as- 
sembled throng ; in the second were the young princes, 
while in the third were the robes of the priests. There 
was something like a dozen other barges built like that 
of the King's, but none were so splendidly orna- 
mented. These are rowed by men in white, who 
lifted their paddles to the same rhythmic beat, and 
they would have been a splendid spectacle in them- 
selves had not the King's gorgeous trappings over- 
shadowed them. I am sure nothing could equal this 
spectacle for oriental magnificence. 

The King was a good-looking man with a pleasing 
manner. He has some Chinese blood of which he is 
not at all proud, for he would rather be thought a 
pure Siamese. It would be impossible to tell how 



142 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

many children King Cholalongkorn has, for he was 
the father of two before he was fifteen years old and 
he is now forty-nine. He has a number of children 
older than the Crown Prince, who is now twenty-six 
years of age, and the mothers of these older offsprings 
are concubines. The Crown Prince is the son of the 
first queen, who no longer lives with the King, because 
her half sister is now the reigning queen. Both are 
half sisters of the king ; for, as he is the only Buddhist 
ruler in the world, there are no other princesses for 
him to marry. He speaks English very well and so 
does the Crown Prince who had a foreign tutor for 
years and is considered a very clever young man. 
His palace is surrounded by a high wall, well guarded 
by day and by night, and most of the government 
offices are within its enclosure. The only part of the 
palace seen by visitors is the audience hall and the gov- 
ernment apartments. The King resides within these 
buildings among the ladies of the harem, quite out of 
sight. The palace is foreign built and furnished in 
very costly style with foreign furniture, but there is a 
great lack of taste in its arrangement. 

In the palace enclosure are a number of wats where 
His Majesty worships. The latest addition was the 
Golden Pagoda built by foreigners and so poorly con- 
structed that much of it has fallen down. The 
stables of the sacred elephants are shown to the visitor, 
composed of a half dozen half -starved, albino ele- 
phants in as many filthy stalls, attended by dirty 








05 
05 

53 

OS 

05 



BANGKOK, A MODERNIZED CITY US 

natives who beg a penny as they throw the elephants 
a wisp of hay or a bunch of bananas. I was told that 
several times a year these huge animals were dressed 
in gorgeous trappings with diamonds hanging from 
their ears and marched through the King's palace. I 
only hope that on these sacred occasions they got a 
bath and enough to eat. Most visitors try to obtain 
a few hairs from the tails of these impotent beasts to 
make a good luck charm. I considered myself par- 
particularly fortunate in securing a ring from the hair 
of the whitest and therefore the most sacred. 

The Siamese men and women are very inferior in 
appearance and the common classes are very filthy in 
their habits. The women dress in a short skirt, reach- 
ing to the knees, and so arranged that it looks like a 
kind of trousers. They fasten a piece of cloth across 
their breasts, for the King had a law passed fifteen 
years ago that women should not appear nude and 
that they should cover their bosoms; but he neglected 
to legislate on their chewing areca or betel nut, a 
habit so constantly and freely indulged in, that the red 
saliva is always running out of their mouths. They 
shingle their hair behind and roach it back from the 
forehead in front; and with all their dirt and half 
naked bodies they are so fond of jewelry that one 
often sees a diamond bracelet worth several hundred 
dollars on a most unclean arm. The immorality of 
the Siamese women is really deplorable ; there are few 
oriental countries where they have fallen so low. 



144 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

The power of the King is absolute ; in fact the land 
and everything in the kingdom belongs to him and his 
subjects know nothing greater nor more powerful 
than their King. He has no less than sixteen names 
to distinguish him from the rest of mankind, and his 
brothers, for the most part, constitute the members 
of his cabinet. They also hold several other govern- 
ment offices, for he has no less than twenty-four of 
these relatives and probably as many sisters; so it is 
small wonder that the temptation of nepotism is great. 

The commerce of the country is so largely in the 
hands of foreigners that the Siamese are really non- 
entities in their own country. The rice mills are 
owned by the Chinese and the gambling houses, that 
great source of revenue to the King, are run by China- 
men. 

Siam is very level and as far as the eye can reach 
there is nothing to be seen but " paddy fields," as the 
Orientals call the mud and water patches where the 
rice grows. It is not until you get far into the in- 
terior that there is any high ground. The currency 
of the country is called the " tical," and the old cur- 
rency is very peculiar. It consists of silver cut or 
hammered into a flattened ball with a deep groove on 
one side and a small chop, or stamp on the other, to 
show in what reign it was issued. The coins were 
made in this shape so they could be easily picked up 
by the gamblers, but many counterfeits were found 
among them, their shape making it impossible for 




A Siamese Woman 



BANGKOK, A MODERNIZED CITY 145 

them to ring. A new currency has been issued, flat 
with milled edges, like that of other countries, with a 
medallion of the King on one side and the coat of arms 
of Siam on the other. The new tical is the size of an 
American half dollar but worth only half as much. 
In the last few years the chartered bank of India and 
Australia, and the Hongkong and Shanghai bank, 
have been allowed by the government to issue differ- 
ent denominations of tical in paper, which is more 
convenient to handle. 

One of my many pleasant remembrances of 
Bangkok is meeting the editor of the Siam Ob- 
server, who came to the hotel to interview me. He 
said that he deemed the impressions of a person who 
had traveled so extensively and seen so many cities 
and countries, worth gathering, and he wanted me to 
be very careful in what I said about Bangkok and 
Siam, for it would be read by the King and other mem- 
bers of the royal family. The interview was nearly a 
column in length, and I understood that the King was 
highly pleased with all I said in praise of himself and 
his country. 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

THE ISLAND OF SINGAPORE 

T^ ORTUNATELY the Delia was to leave Bang- 
■■• kok for Singapore just as I was ready to sail. It 
was a three days' trip, and although the weather was 
exceedingly hot, there was always a cool spot to be 
found somewhere on board. The English passengers 
grumbled a good deal because there were no punkers in 
the dining room, but the boat was built for the East 
Indian service, and the Dutch believe that the punker 
cools the air too suddenly and causes one to take cold. 
The punker is a long fan, made by tacking cloth to a 
strip of wood and suspending it from the ceiling in 
such a way that it can easily be swung by means of 
long ropes attached to it and pulled by coolies. This 
device is much used in oriental countries for cooling 
the atmosphere. 

Singapore has a splendid harbor which is always 
full of shipping. Most of the boats go alongside the 
quay, but we arrived before daylight and stopped half 
a mile from shore. All the passengers were up as 
soon as it was light and then came the usual bartering 
with the native boatmen to take us ashore. If there 
are any fixed rates in oriental countries one is a long 
time in finding it out ; for the natives always take ad- 

146 




The Sacred White Elephant of Siam 



THE ISLAND OF SINGAPORE 147; 

vantage of newcomers, and everyone else when it is 
possible. 

On reaching shore we were met by a number of 
Malay runners from the different hotels and they 
were about as hard to contend with as the native boat- 
men. The hotels are about a mile from the landing 
but the different points are a long way apart in 
Singapore. 

The town is about three miles distant from the 
residence district. Even there it takes a long time 
to visit one's friends, for the houses and even the 
public buildings are surrounded with acres of ground 
and this makes them a great distance apart. The 
dwelling places are very charming, having been built 
in great groves of cocoanut and palm trees. 

There are few places in the Orient that excite the 
admiration of the stranger as much as Singapore, 
viewed from the deck of the steamer. The greater 
part of the island is flat, the climate the same the 
year round, hot and oppressive, for it lies almost on 
the equator, and the island, like the climate, never 
changes; it is always a beautiful green. On the 
esplanade stands the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, 
who founded Singapore in 1819 and served as its 
first English governor. 

Singapore has a fine situation in the most south- 
erly part of Asia. The English, wishing to have a 
port far enough north so steamers going to and from 
Europe could call, swapped Java with the Dutch for 



148 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Singapore, and it has been an English possession 
ever since. Persons coming from China and Japan 
by the northern route, and those going to China by 
the same route, change steamers at Singapore if they 
propose visiting the Dutch East Indies. The boats 
of the Royal Packet Company, owned by the Dutch, 
are considered the best by travelers, for they run to 
all the different parts of the East Indies and their 
decks are furnished with reclining chairs and lounges, 
where the passengers take their afternoon tea and 
siestas, often, as well, spending the night in the cool 
air of the deck instead of going to their cabins below. 
I had gone on board the steamer the night previous 
to its sailing and it lay alongside the dock all night. 
There is no describing how I suffered with the mos- 
quitoes, for Singapore's pests are terrible. 

The first dawn of day found me on deck and I had 
hardly seated myself when I saw the captain taking 
his coffee, which is the custom in these countries to 
do as soon as one arises. This captain was an ex- 
ceedingly homely man; his hair was bright red, his 
light Dutch complexion had been burned by the 
tropical sun until it was almost as red as his hair, and 
he was bespeckled with freckles almost as large as 
peas. To add to his ungainly appearance he was 
dressed in pajamas made from Javanese sarongs of 
gorgeous coloring, and he wore a jacket made from 
some white material which was not clean. On his 
head was a white cap, also dirty, and he walked 




The Raffles Museum, Singapore 



THE ISLAND OF SINGAPORE 149 

around quite as complacently as if he were in full 
dress. I was very much disgusted with his appear- 
ance, but it was not long before the other passengers 
came on deck and I discovered that all, with the ex- 
ception of the German Governor from Apia, one 
of the Samoan islands, and his doctor, were similarly 
attired. The women wore sarongs with white sacks 
and no stockings and Javanese toe slippers. 

For breakfast, however, the captain put on a neat 
suit of white, and on his left at the table sat the Ger- 
man Governor and his doctor; while the seat on his 
right was given to me. On my left sat two Amer- 
ican gentlemen, so that, at our end of the table, 
everyone was properly attired, while most of the 
Dutch passengers breakfasted in pajamas and sar- 
ongs. It was not until dinner time that the pajamas 
were discarded, though many put them on again as 
soon as dinner was over. In many places in the 
Dutch East Indies the women, as well as the men, 
wear pajamas all day; and it is not until evening 
that they dress, often in silk, satin and velvet, and go 
to call upon their friends as late as ten o'clock. 

At one of the steamship offices in Singapore I 
received a small guide book to the Dutch East Indies 
containing a paragraph advising tourists to take 
enough pajamas along to have at least a clean pair 
for each meal. A pair of pajamas, he said, were 
hardly the thing to wear at the table after they had 
been slept in all night. 



150 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

The sarong is the native dress worn by both sexes. 
These, and cotton handkerchiefs which the men wear 
on their heads, are manufactured by machinery in 
Batavia. They are stamped after the manner of 
calico, but thousands are still woven on hand looms 
by the women in the native houses. The cloth, after 
it is woven and before it receives the color, is called 
a " battek," and the beauty and fineness of the sarong 
all depend on how the " battek " is woven. The 
largest sarongs are about two yards in length and 
from three-quarters to over a yard in width. Their 
colorings are very gorgeous, one end usually being in 
some fancy design. They are worn by putting 
them straight around the waist and then drawing 
them up under a string or belt, crossing the fancy 
end over the plain in front. The Dutch law com- 
pels the native people to wear the dress of their coun- 
try; but if the men wear the foreign trousers they 
must loop the sarong around their waists and wear 
the native handkerchief about their heads. If a man 
wears a foreign hat he must cut the crown out of it, 
for the native people are not allowed to wear foreign 
headgear, neither are they allowed to wear foreign 
shoes; even the soldiers are compelled to go bare- 
footed. Of course, thin materials that will wash are 
most desirable in these hot climates where the ther- 
mometer often registers 100° in the shade; but one 
soon regulates his habits and manners of living 
according to the customs of the country he is in. 



JAVA 



CHAPTER FOURTEEN 

" THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS " 

TF one intends to make a tour of the whole island 
of Java some warm wraps are necessary, for at 
Tosari, the highest health resort, which is only about 
6000 feet above the level of the sea, one suffers with 
the cold after coming from the hot climate below. 
Even at the height of two or three thousand feet it is 
cool enough to be very enjoyable. 

On the boat one gets the first insight into the way 
the people of the Dutch East Indies live. There are 
no bath tubs, the water usually stands in a large tub 
and you pour it over your head with a cup or pail. 
The meals are about the same as those at the first- 
class hotels in Java. In the morning, as soon as one 
rises, coffee is brought to the room in a small bottle 
that holds two or three spoonfuls and corked with a 
glass stopper. The coffee kernel is browned until 
it is almost black, and, as the decoction is generally 
made a day or two before it is used, it is as strong as 
can be, and similar to a coffee extract. One tea- 
spoonful is quite strong enough for an ordinary cup, 
which is prepared by putting one teaspoonful of the 
extract into a cup and filling it with hot milk. I had 
heard a great deal about the delicious coffee of Java. 

153 



154 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

The Javanese, it was said, were the only people who 
knew how to make coffee to perfection; but this was 
not my experience, for I thought that of all the great 
coffee countries I had visited they knew the least 
about making the beverage. 

Breakfast is served at eight o'clock and consists 
mostly of cold dishes, — meat, jam, bread, butter and 
tea. At twelve o'clock luncheon is served, called the 
Dutch India rice table, for large bowls of rice, hold- 
ing several gallons, are passed around with a pint 
scoop to dish it out. Each person proceeds to fill 
his deep plate full, and then come the different dishes 
to be mixed with the rice. Sometimes there are no 
less than twelve kinds of boiled, baked, fried and 
dried meats, chicken, fish, soup, pickles, vegetables, 
chutney and other sauces mixed with the rice before 
it is eaten. It is surprising how much of this mix- 
ture the Dutch can eat and it is served for this meal 
the year around. After this, beefsteak and potatoes 
are usually served and there is fruit for dessert and 
coffee. Dinner consists of four courses with some 
kind of pudding and ice for dessert, also tea and 
coffee. All kinds of drinks may be had by paying 
extra for them. 

At the hotels, before luncheon and dinner, an ap- 
petizer free to all the guests is set out on the veranda. 
It is a liquor something like the Russian vodka, but 
stronger. There is also a tonic, a dark-colored mix- 
ture, and the two together make a very strong drink. 



"THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS" 155 

The Dutch never drink Singapore soda water, which 
is so popular in Siam and on some of the steamship 
lines, for they believe it to be very unhealthf ul. They 
drink nothing but Apollinaris water, which is shipped 
to Java by the thousands of gallons. The water of 
Java is not generally good, as few of the cities have 
water works. Most of it comes from springs and 
wells and it often causes fever and cholera. 

There was little excitement on the boat. About 
all one can do in these hot climates is to keep as quiet 
as possible and not overheat the blood. Everyone 
was anxious to know just when we would cross the 
equator and, though I had crossed it eight times be- 
fore, I was as interested as any of the other passen- 
gers. The ocean was as smooth as a floor and we 
were always in sight of pretty evergreen islands. 

As Java came into view it presented a charming 
appearance; and soon the boat entered the spacious 
harbor of Tand-jony-Priok, filled with the shipping 
that mostly belonged to the Dutch companies. The 
steamer proceeds to the dock and as soon as the plank 
is thrown out the Javanese boys, or porters, come on 
board from the hotels of Batavia to meet the passen- 
gers. Your baggage must all go to the customs 
house near the landing to see if you have any firearms 
with you. A little farther on is the railway station 
where you buy your ticket and book your baggage 
for Batavia, which is situated inland an hour's ride by 
train. 



156 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Entering Batavia one must be careful to get off 
at the right station. The hotels and the best resi- 
dences are in the new part called Weltervreden, and 
if you go to the hotel first you change your station at 
Batavia and take another train for either the station, 
Noordwijk or Koningsplein, where carriages and 
omnibuses are waiting to take you to the hotels. 

The first vehicle which attracts a stranger's atten- 
tion at Batavia is a small two- wheeled carriage 
spelled " dos-a-dos " and pronounced " sado." The 
driver sits in the middle to balance it, and the passen- 
gers sit with their back to the driver facing the street. 
You get into it from a small step at the back, where 
there is nothing for you to take hold of, and often the 
pony starts as soon as he feels the pressure of a foot 
on the small step. This raises the shafts ; and as the 
drivers are often half asleep you are liable to get a 
fall, as I did, nor did I recover from the effects of it 
for days. Thank goodness, these conveyances are 
found nowhere else in the world. 

The hotels are situated along the tramway which 
runs through the old and the new town. The Hotel 
des Indies is the largest and best in Java. The main 
parts of the hotels are usually two stories in height, 
never higher, for to ascend to the second story is 
tiring in these hot climates. They are plainly fur- 
nished with wide beds and good mosquito bars 
around them, well tucked in at night. Only one 
sheet is put on the bed and a long bolster is laid in 




Javanese Men in Native Sarongs 



"THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS" 157 

the middle lengthwise, which a person is supposed to 
embrace and hold next the body to keep the vitals 
warm, with no other covering but one's nightclothes. 

Batavia has a population of 200,000 but no sewers 
and no water works. A river runs through the city 
having the appearance of a canal. It is walled up 
some thirty or forty feet on either side and it has 
been so dredged out that the current is very swift. 
Into this river every conceivable kind of filth is 
thrown. The natives bathe in it and drink the water, 
while most of the clothes worn in Batavia are washed 
in this useful stream. It looks as thick as mud, it is 
so impregnated with the red clay washed down from 
the mountains. The water used for cooking is taken 
from wells. When I visited Batavia in 1892 it had 
not rained for seven months, and all the parks and 
plazas were as dry as an ash heap and the cholera 
was spreading badly, as is always the case when there 
is a continued drought. 

The old part of Batavia caia scarcely be called 
pretty. The buildings are old-fashioned and 
crowded together, while the streets are dirty and 
there is a large native population; but the most im- 
portant business houses, such as the banks, are in this 
part of the city. It is the upper part, or the new 
town called Weltervreden, that is so attractive and 
the prettiest oriental city in the world. It looks 
very little like a city, for the dwellings are situated 
on either side of long well-paved streets and are sur- 



158 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WOULD 

rounded by acres of ground, which give them the 
appearance of villas as well as a very rural look. 
They are only one story high, but they cover a great 
deal of ground and have wide verandas. At night 
they are brilliantly lighted with electricity, and it is 
a pretty sight to ride through the town at that time 
and sec it lighted up. The whole city is built in a 
magnificent forest of tropical trees and plants. 
Many of the stores along the river have large 
grounds around them and look more like dwellings 
Hum shops. At live in the afternoon and until late 
in the evening the streets are full of splendid equi- 
pages Idled with people riding with uncovered heads 
to cool oil". 

There are only a few places of interest to visit. 
In the old town are the gates of the old Batavian 
Castle, with two immense black statues on each side 
of the door, but it would be impossible to say what 
they represent. To the west, and not far from the 
gale, is the old cannon of Murium, considered sacred 
by the natives, who believe it will produce life and 
fertility, and they keep offerings and sacred oil con- 
tinually burning around it. 

The Chinese town has rather a pretty situation 
and a population of over 20,000. They are not good 
looking like Ihe Chinese of Singapore, for most of 
them are mixed with the Javanese. The museum is 
very interesting, the exhibits being mostly from the 
islands in the archipelago. In a small room in 



"THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS" 159 

charge of one of the attendants one sees the things 
that belonged to the Maraja of Batavia, among them 
a golden chair, a number of rings, swords, sheaths, 
and a hat that was worn by the Maraja, studded with 
diamonds, rubies and emeralds. In another room is 
a collection of Buddhist gods from the old temples in 
the center of Java, while in still another room may 
be seen the instruments of punishment used by the 
natives before the island came into the possession of 
the Dutch. One visit to this room is sufficient, for 
the sight is most harrowing. There is also a library 
in connection with the museum, in the front of which 
is a bronze elephant, a present from the King of 
Siam, who, with the queen, has twice visited Java. 

Batavia was founded in the first part of the seven- 
teenth century as the capital of the Dutch East India 
Company. It is an hour's ride to Buitenzorg and 
there are a number of trains a day; but it is always 
best to take one reaching there before two, as after 
that there is always a terrific rain storm accompanied 
by wind, and it is almost impossible to escape a thor- 
ough soaking. 

There is little difference between the climate of 
these two cities, although the difference in the alti- 
tude is a thousand feet. Another rather remarkable 
thing is the fact that one city is flooded with rain 
while the other does not get a drop once in seven 
months. The great beauty of Buitenzorg is its 
tropical scenery, for the constant rain and the great 



160 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

heat bring out the foliage to perfection. From the 
rear cottages of the Hotel Bellevue there is a fine 
view over the Valley of Tjiliwong and the Gedeh 
and the Salak mountains, which are covered to the 
top with a thick, tropical jungle. 

But this is only the appetizer before the feast. 
Rising early in the morning one sets out to visit the 
Botanical Gardens, for it is impossible to walk 
through the dense forest after it grows hot. The 
Botanical Gardens were established in 1817 by Rein- 
wardt, and they are considered the finest of their kind 
in the world. They are certainly the finest sight in 
Buitenzorg, but I will not attempt to give a detailed 
account of them, for they are so extensive, and they 
embrace so many departments, it would involve a 
long list of botanical names. They are greatly en- 
joyed by all who see them, but it is the botanist who 
has the greatest feast. 

The Governor General's mansion is surrounded 
by these gardens, which give it the appearance of 
being situated in an immense forest. Often in the 
early morning the Governor General and his wife 
may be seen walking through them, chatting and 
laughing like a pair of lovers. Buitenzorg is a de- 
lightful place. Most of the best buildings are sur- 
rounded by fine gardens of shrubs and trees whose 
foliage is so dense that it effectually screens them. 

Early one morning I took the train for Garoet, 
my next stopping place. The railroads are owned 



"THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS" 161 

by the government and the trains run about sixteen 
miles an hour. They are usually crowded, for the 
passengers generally bring the greater part of their 
baggage into the coaches to avoid paying for it. 
The first-class passengers are allowed only forty 
pounds, so every available space in the car is crowded 
with some kind of luggage and the conductors fall 
over it a dozen times a day, without saying a word. 
One of the coaches is divided into a first and second 
class compartment and there is a third-class Euro- 
pean and a third-class native coach. 

After leaving Buitenzorg the road runs through a 
broken and hilly country, with any number of 
" paddy " fields wherever it is possible to find a few 
yards of level ground. I have traveled through 
thousands of rice fields but never, until I went to 
Java, did I see rice fields so truly beautiful. In 
places the rice grew on terraces on the hillsides two 
or three hundred feet high ; indeed there was so much 
variety displayed in its cultivation it would seem as 
if the fields had been designed by a landscape 
gardener. 

Garoet was once a health resort, but now the sani- 
tarium has been turned into a boarding house, for it 
was not high enough to derive any benefit from a 
change in the climate. I enjoyed a rest of a few 
days there, for the boarding house was very comfort- 
able and supplied with pure water that came from 
the mountains some distance away. The European 



162 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

part of the town is prettily situated, but there is a 
large, native town that is very dirty. One evening I 
went to see the native theater, or wa-jang. I was 
told it would be something like a puppet show, and 
that the puppets were cut out of buffalo hides. It 
was said that they had funny thin legs and resem- 
bled the wooden dolls sold by the natives in the 
streets. On arriving, however, I was much disap- 
pointed, for it appeared from all indications that I 
was about to see a show which had been in America; 
an American is not long in recognizing the charac- 
teristics of his own country. 

In this case they were trying to act a foreign play, 
and there was nothing Javanese about it but the 
actors, who had belonged to the Javanese village at 
the World's Fair in Chicago, and wonderfully gotten 
up they were. The different acts were long and 
tedious and there was a great deal of singing and 
long-drawn-out dialogues, but toward the end things 
took a wonderful change and all the actors decided 
to die. It was not long before they appeared in 
ethereal robes and tremendous wings and commenced 
the ascent to heaven ; but the ropes did not work well 
and they all came near getting their necks broken 
before they were pulled out of sight. So far they 
had used only the Malay language, which is the lan- 
guage of the native Javanese. At the conclusion, 
however, all the actors came out and sang " John 
Brown's Body " in good round English, but the song 



"THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS" 163 

was not known to any of the foreigners present ex- 
cepting myself, and when I explained it to the others 
they all enjoyed it heartily. I am sure that no song 
ever written in America has been sung by different 
foreign nations the world over as has " John Brown's 
Body." If John Brown's soul has been on the 
march as long as the song which celebrates the great 
liberator, it has surely visited a lot of countries since 
John Brown's body has been moldering in the grave. 
Garoet is situated near a number of volcanoes, one 
of which is the most active in Java. The crater most 
visited is that of Papandajan, and to visit it takes 
almost a whole day, for it is necessary to leave the 
hotel at three in the morning so as to make the ascent 
before the heat of the day. As soon as I arrived at 
the hotel, everyone I chanced to meet asked me if I 
was going to visit the famous crater; and, as most of 
the guests had been there they all seemed anxious to 
impress me with the vision of the wonderful sight to 
be seen. An old Dutch gentleman who could not 
speak English got off a lot of Dutch adjectives to 
describe how he was impressed with the sight, and 
the various contortions of his face, as he rolled off 
these tremendous words, each of which must have 
contained a dozen letters, made me very nervous, for 
I was afraid his jaw would be dislocated in the effort. 
As I got into the two-wheeled cart drawn by two 
ponies, I heard something pass through the air very 
swiftly, but it did not occur to me until some time 



164 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

later how near I came to being kicked by one of the 
ponies, a very vicious animal. It was quite dark at 
the early hour I left the hotel for the volcano, but 
the ponies were good travelers and we passed swiftly 
through the darkness. We had not proceeded far on 
our journey, however, when I felt quite cold, and 
my native driver, who was thinly clad, was shaking 
like an aspen leaf from the chilly atmosphere. 

At Garoet it was just cool enough to be pleasant 
at this hour, and I was surprised to find that a few 
hundred feet could make such a difference in the tem- 
perature in this hot climate. I arrived before nine at 
Tjiseroepan, the station at the foot of the mountain, 
where a sedan chair, or djoecies, must be taken to 
complete the journey. I had rather an exciting 
time in my effort to avoid being kicked by the pony 
as I alighted from the cart, and it took the combined 
power of six coolies to hold him. But these little 
incidents break the monotony of travel and give one 
something exciting to tell one's friends at home. 

Chairs and coolies were waiting for me. They 
are constantly on the lookout for persons making 
the trip and they appear to see them several miles 
away. It was impossible for the coolies to carry me 
at the steepest parts of the ascent and I had a long, 
steep walk both up and down the mountains. Ar- 
riving at the top I found a board shanty conveniently 
erected for eating luncheons, and from this point I 
had a good view of the crater below, which is filled 




Gathering Cocoanuts in Java 



"THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS" 165 

with a number of hot formations, some of which are' 
mud geysers, others of a sulphurous nature, that 
make a good deal of noise as they throw up their hot 
vapors. 

As my guide took me through these geysers he 
continually asked me if I had ever seen anything like 
them before. It was useless for me to tell how dis- 
appointed I was after the glowing descriptions I had 
received, for I had visited most of the famous craters 
in other parts of the world, and after seeing Yellow- 
stone Park and the Wonderland of New Zealand, I 
scarcely felt repaid for my visit. The only enjoya- 
ble thing to me was the trip through the splendid for- 
ests, the coffee and sugar plantations and the " paddy 
fields." This crater has not been in active eruption 
since 1772, but at that time it was very destructive 
and forty villages were destroyed together with 
3000 people. 

There are a number of other excursions to be made 
from Garoet to the neighboring mountains, but as 
I had seen the best of these sights I thought it hardly 
worth while to spend any more time and, therefore, 
proceeded on my way, to find that my train would go 
no farther than Maos, the great junction of the Jav- 
anese railroads, where connections are made with all 
the other railroads on the island. 

When Central Java is reached the heat is much 
greater and railroad travel much more tedious. The 
rays of the tropical sun, beating on the tops of the 



166 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

cars, heats the air inside until it is almost suffocating; 
and that, with the dust which comes in through the 
windows and doors, makes one fairly gasp for 
breath. The cars do not run at night so of course 
there are no sleepers, although it would be much more 
comfortable if one could travel at night and lie by 
in the daytime, but it is not considered safe, for the 
natives who run the trains are not skilled enough nor 
sufficiently careful to run a train at night. 

Another disagreeable feature of Javanese railroad 
travel is the way they have of feeding their passen- 
gers. Just after the train starts the conductor goes 
through the cars and finds out how many want 
luncheon, of which there are two kinds, the beefsteak 
and the rice table, and you are asked which you will 
have. Somewhere near the noon hour two men 
come into the car with a lot of tin pails, such as 
workmen carry in America, each pail having three 
divisions. If you have ordered a beefsteak luncheon 
you will find in the first division a chunk of meat as 
black as tar and as tough as leather, cooked in a 
plentiful amount of grease. In the next division 
are a number of small potatoes cooked in rancid 
grease, and in the last division is the salad, some 
coarse lettuce leaves covered with a miserable mix- 
ture of oil and vinegar, and a banana serves for 
dessert. 

A glass is brought about a quarter full of ice, and 
you are asked what size bottle of Apollinaris you 



« THE LAND OF PAJAMAS AND SARONGS " 167 

will have; but when this is brought it is so hot it 
causes the ice to vanish like smoke, and the whole 
thing tastes like hot water. As a result you feel as 
if you would like to sit and hold your head on for an 
hour or two after this abominable mixture. The rice- 
table luncheon is the best, but if you don't know the 
Malay name for rice you will have to take the beef- 
steak luncheon for, thanks to kind Providence, beef- 
steak has the same name the world over. 

At Maos the Government Hotel can be endured 
for one night. Its nearness to the railroad station 
is appreciated by tourists for long distances and 
early trains mean very early rising and a good deal 
of worry and, moreover, coolies in oriental countries 
know nothing of being on time or in a hurry. The 
train leaves Maos at five in the morning, but even at 
this early hour the air is not cool, like the early morn- 
ing air in north or west Java, and as soon as the sun 
is up it is baking hot. 



\ 



CHAPTER FIFTEEN 

THE GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR 

A FTER an exceedingly warm ride of four hours 
***• through a low uninteresting country, we arrived 
at Djokjakarta, where we found there would be an 
hour's wait before the train would leave for Mage- 
lang. This would give me time to make arrange- 
ments for leaving my heavy baggage at the station 
until my return. There are two ways of reaching 
Boro-Boedor from Djokja, one by driving all the 
way (it is twenty-five miles by this route), the other, 
and less fatiguing, by tram car to Magelang and 
driving the rest of the distance. By this route it is 
thirty-two miles. The coolies scrambled from under 
the trees, picked up the baggage and carried it to the 
train, and this was the signal for all to go on board. 
With many regrets we quitted our seats on the broad 
piazza of the railroad station shaded with palms and 
canary trees and took our seats in the cars, which 
were very ordinary, for the train was only an accom- 
modation. 

Many little villages, clustered among the tropical 
foliage, made a very enjoyable change in the scenery 
after the low uninteresting country we had just 
passed through, and these villages were built so 

168 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR 169 

closely together it gave the impression of but one 
village extending from Djokja to Magelang. Such 
is not the case, however, for there are a number of 
these villages with different names, and all have their 
" passer " or native market, which were being held at 
this early morning hour. The streets presented a 
strange but picturesque appearance, a veritable 
kaleidoscope of coloring, both men and women being 
dressed in sarongs of every color of the rainbow, and 
dozens of little naked children stood on the platform 
of the station, their eyes and mouths wide open with 
wonderment as though they had never seen the cars 
before. Their unkempt hair and little brown bodies 
looked as if they had never been washed, but they 
were all as happy and contented as children could be. 
Their mothers trudged along with a long scarf 
thrown over one shoulder in such a way that it held a 
baby astride the hip, and many of them were chewing 
betel nut rolled up in a betel leaf mixed with some 
lime to extract the juice, which acts as a stimulant 
and colors the mouth and teeth as black as ink. No 
pen can picture the disgusting nastiness of oriental 
people taken as a whole. 

Through the mistake of my native servant, who 
had never made the trip before, we left the train at 
the town of Magelang instead of going a half mile 
farther on to the station of Magelang, where the 
station agent will telephone the livery stable for a 
team. No matter whether you speak Malay or not, 



170 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

all you have to say is " Boro-Boedor " and the agent 
comprehends at once. 

We soon discovered our mistake but we had to 
make the best of it, and after some delay found the 
livery stable. The owner, a Chinaman, informed us 
that all the best rigs had been let to a party which 
were going to a neighboring town on government 
business, and a cart and two little ponies from San- 
dalwood Island were all he had left. These ponies 
are used extensively in Java, and when I was in 
Singapore I met a man importing them into Manila, 
though many other kinds of horses are used also. 
Most of the race horses come from Australia. While 
my cart was being made ready I found my native 
servant had hired no less than six coolies to help him 
with my hand bag which he could have carried easily 
in one hand. He said the coolies had begged so 
hard to help him that he could not resist their de- 
mands, and he thought I would not object to giving 
them a few cents. 

After traveling for at least a mile through the 
town and being followed by a lot of curious natives, 
we came to the country road. It was well paved and 
on either side grew large canary trees centuries old; 
never during the twelve miles were we out of the 
shade of these magnificent trees. The road ran 
through a well-cultivated plain, planted with rice 
and sugar cane in different stages of cultivation, 
some almost ripened, others just being made ready 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR 171 

for the rice planting. No fertilizer is used on the 
rice fields; the stubble is plowed under and the field 
is then ready to be planted. The rice is sown in beds 
as thick as it will stand, and when about six inches in 
height it is transplanted, not more than one or two 
stalks to a hill, and these hills about a foot apart, the 
labor being performed by men and women wading 
into the mud and water up to their knees. There 
has been no change in the mode of cultivating this 
grain in Java for 1100 years; and the plow, the 
buffalo and the native carrying home the " paddy " 
tied to the end of a long pole and swung over his 
shoulder, may be seen to-day chiseled on the walls of 
Boro-Boedor. No animal but the buffalo can be 
used to plow the rice field, and this mud ox is always 
accompanied by a little native boy who sits on the 
animal's back to keep him from eating the rice while 
he is feeding. 

Although it was but half -past ten in the morning 
the country was as deserted as if it had been mid- 
night. The laborers had finished their day's work 
and had gone home. In oriental countries everyone 
rises early in the morning because it is the coolest 
part of the day and the only time when work can be 
done without suffering from the heat. The natives 
are in the field by two in the morning and never labor 
after ten, for the sun becomes too hot to be endured. 
My native driver was one of the most unfeeling crea- 
tures imaginable. He looked neither to the right 



172 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

nor to the left, but kept up such a constant beating 
and " hee-heeing " at the ponies that it became ex- 
tremely annoying. 

When we had gone some miles I commenced to 
look for the temple, supposing it would come in sight, 
as the Great Pyramids of Gizeh in Egypt do, for 
these can be seen some miles before they are reached. 
There was nothing in sight, however, but the plain 
we were crossing and the high mountains in the dis- 
tance covered with dense tropical foliage. Turning 
to my little driver and pointing, as I supposed, in the 
right direction, I said " Boro-Boedor? " and such a 
look and scowl he gave me. It seemed to say " How 
dare you ask me such a question!" and the manner 
of it had the effect of lessening my temple enthusi- 
asm for the time being and arousing my anger for 
the contemptible little creature. However, we went 
on until he suddenly stopped in the road, stretched 
his mouth almost from ear to ear, and pointing to a 
hill not far away he exclaimed, " Boro-Boedor! " 

Looking in the direction he indicated, I saw for 
the first time the great Hindu temple. " Oh, how 
disappointing ! " I thought. Instead of towering 
hundreds of feet above the hill on which it stood it 
did not appear to be more than one hundred feet at 
the highest point, and so ragged and broken that 
many openings in the wall could be seen. Great 
white stones, where the rust and accumulated dust 
of ages had broken off bearing the faces of the stone 




© 

to 

© 

© 
© 






HO 

S3 
to 

to 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR ITS 

with it, gave the walls an unfinished appearance not in 
keeping with the rest of the massive structure. It 
looked as if it had been shaken by earthquakes which, 
with the great lapse of time since its construction, 
had brought it to a dilapidated condition. The hill, 
which is ascended by a road to the north of the 
temple, is rather steep and not in very good condi- 
tion; but after some hard pulling the ponies suc- 
ceeded in reaching the top and we drove to the Pas- 
angrahan, a little hotel that stands opposite to and 
not far from the temple, owned and run by the 
government. 

The manager of the Pasangrahan came to the 
steps of the broad piazza to meet us, gorgeously at- 
tired in new pajamas made from sarongs which were 
brilliant with great brown, yellow and red roses, his 
bare feet thrust into a pair of toe slippers that made 
a clapping sound as he walked, his sleeves rolled up 
to the elbows. When he addressed me I actually did 
not know whether he blushed or whether his color 
was a reflection of his pajamas; at any rate he 
seemed embarrassed, and I wondered what could be 
the cause. The reason was soon evident, however, 
for he suddenly vanished, to reappear later in a suit 
of white duck, and such a wonderful metamorphosis 
had taken place I did not recognize him, for I 
thought a new guest had arrived, much to the amuse- 
ment of the young manager. 

I had begun to think that blushing and embar- 



174 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

rassment were not characteristics of the Dutch men 
and women of Java, the land of pajamas and 
sarongs, for both the men and the women appear in 
this dishabille attire on the hotel piazzas and at the 
noonday rice-table luncheon. One never expects to 
see any of these people blushing and embarrassed; 
bare feet and bare ankles are of too common occur- 
rence to cause even a remark, and turning down the 
upper part of the garment at the neck and rolling up 
the sleeves are only in keeping with the abbreviation 
of the lower part of the costume. The ladies select 
their sarongs with as much care and take as much 
pride in their fineness and colorings as the ladies in 
other countries do in choosing their Parisian gowns; 
and doubtless the men are just as particular about 
their pajamas made from sarongs. The Hotel 
Bellevue at Buitenzorg was the only place in the 
whole length and breadth of Java where I heard any 
objection to this style of dress or undress; and the 
regulations found in each room contained the re- 
quest, printed at the bottom in large black letters, 
that the guests would please dress themselves for the 
nine o'clock table d'hote dinner. 

An hour after my arrival at the Pasangrahan the 
rice-table luncheon was served, and I could not de- 
termine whether the fact that it was the first time 
the rice-table luncheon had tasted really delicious to 
me was due to my coffee breakfast and long ride or 
to the superior excellence of the Pasangrahan method 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR 175 

of preparing it. Not long after the luncheon was 
over all the people around the hotel, both foreigners 
and natives, disappeared to take their afternoon 
siestas, and I was told it would be out of the question 
to think of going to the top of the temple until after 
three o'clock, for the hot sun might cause sunstroke 
or fever. So I contented myself with a view from 
the hotel piazza, from which two sides of the temple 
are distinctly visible and give one a good idea of its 
size, and it was soon so still not a sound was to be 
heard; not so much as a leaf stirred on the trees. 
The stillness became really oppressive. Even Nir- 
vana, the Buddhist heaven, the land of Eternal Sleep, 
could not be more still and deathlike, and the two 
hours I sat there seemed an age. 

The first thing that broke the stillness was the 
sound of the natives pounding the hulls of the rice 
with a wooden pestle attached to a lever and worked 
with the feet, another of the time honored inventions 
that date back as far as the plow, which is nothing 
more than a common shovel fastened to a crooked 
stick. One by one the people around the hotel made 
their appearance, and at last a native guide came to 
show me over the temple. In the meantime I had 
been reading a small pamphlet which I had pur- 
chased at the Pasangrahan, entitled " Tyandi Boro- 
Boedor," a work recently published as a guide to the 
temple and written by Dr. J. Groneman, Honorary 
President of the Archaeological Society of Djokja. 



176 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

I quote one of the paragraphs which describes the 
temple almost precisely as it now appears, for 
although it has been greatly damaged from various 
causes, it still rises majestically above them all and 
has the same overpowering effect upon us: "Up- 
wards of 1000 years have rolled over the Barabudur, 
the Great Buddha ; earthquakes and ash showers have 
disjointed its walls, heavy rainfalls and rank vegeta- 
tion have disintegrated its foundation, and short- 
sighted slaves of imbecility or fanaticism have 
defaced its works of art, but still the ruin stands 
there, an imposing fact, a powerful creation of the 
thinking mind, an epic in stone, immortal in its 
decadence." 

Barabudur is a solid pyramid and rises in five 
splendidly sculptured terraces which are its crowning 
glory. At every turn around this great pyramid one 
feels more inclined to believe it was an inspiration 
from Buddha himself as a masterpiece to his mem- 
ory, for it seems almost beyond the human mind to 
have planned and executed such a piece of work. 

Very little was known about the ancient ruins in 
Java until 1811, when, after Napoleon's defeat, the 
English took possession of the island. Holland at 
that time belonged to the French and her posses- 
sions in the East Indies were ceded to the English. 
The Dutch had been in possession of the island for 
two centuries at that time, but they only knew of the 
ruins of Brambanan, which were accidentally dis- 




Sculptures on the Galleries of Boro-Boedor 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR 177 

covered by a Dutch engineer in 1797 when he was 
constructing a fortification near them. The Dutch 
were too much occupied with their commercial pur- 
suits and money-making schemes to be interested in 
the ancient ruins of Java, and they knew nothing 
about the people prior to the Mohammedan conquest. 
During the time the English occupied Java, from 
1811 to 1816, there was a complete revolution of the 
government under their Governor, Sir Stamford 
Raffles. He had the island explored and the ruined 
temples cleared of the rank vegetation that had cov- 
ered them for ages, and the inscriptions and data 
uncovered at that time enabled the explorers to de- 
termine the period of their building as the seventh, 
eighth and ninth centuries. 

It was during these explorations that Boro-Boedor 
was discovered in a thick, tropical jungle which had 
covered it for more than six centuries, and it took the 
English surveyors over a month and a half, with the 
assistance of a small army of coolies, to clear the 
temple of its tropical covering and to excavate below 
the terrace, where they found two other terraces 
buried out of sight, and replaced the earth, fearing 
the temple might collapse. 

After the Dutch again came into possession of 
Java their archaeologists made a thorough study of 
the temple and further excavations were made. It 
was discovered that the broad terrace around the base 
was of much more recent date than the inner portion 



178 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

of the temple, and that it was doubtless constructed 
by the last worshipers of Buddha in Java as a sup- 
port to the massive structure. 

The road leading from the top of the hill to the 
temple was the one used by the pilgrims, on either 
side of which lie the crumbling pedestals where 
Buddhas once looked down serenely on the passers- 
by; but these have all disappeared. There are a 
number of lions lying around on the grass and sitting 
near the temple, and they are sufficiently ugly to give 
one a cold chill even in the hot, stuffy climate of 
temple hill. 

Boro-Boedor is situated in the district of Boro and 
the province of Kedu. No dates or inscriptions 
were found on the temple which would lead to the 
discovery of the time it was built, but by inscriptions 
found elsewhere it was determined that its construc- 
tion dates back to the eighth or ninth century. The 
temple covers three acres of ground, and the interior 
is filled in with earth. Its original height was 120 
feet, but twenty feet of the spire or central dome has 
fallen off. In shape it is a terraced pyramid, which 
rises first in a square terrace that forms its base, then 
five square terraced galleries and above these three 
circular terraces around the top. In the center is a 
cupola that rises above them all. 

One ascends the first terrace by some dilapidated 
stone steps at one end of the temple, but these were 
built after the originals had disappeared, as formerly 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-B0ED0R 179 

each of the four sides had steps that corresponded 
with each of the four stairways ascending to the top. 
In the center of each of the four sides of the galleries 
these stairways pass under finely sculptured pointed 
arches, and all of these five galleries are sculptured 
on either side in bas relief, of which there were once 
more than 2000 sections, though now more than one- 
third have crumbled and disappeared. The inner 
walls are much more elaborately sculptured than the 
outer, and around each of the galleries are balus- 
trades containing niches or temples, in which life- 
sized Buddhas, with disks around their heads, are 
seated on lotus cushions. 

The three circular terraces around the top have 
openwork dagobas, shaped like a bell, but only a few 
of these are perfect, for many of them have lost their 
tops, others have been shoved from their foundations 
by earthquakes, and still more are broken and 
crumbling. Each of these seventy-two dagobas 
around the top once contained a Buddha seated 
cross-legged on a lotus cushion. These figures have 
no aureole around their heads but all are seated 
facing the great central dagoba, the grand finale of 
the whole. The purpose for which this great cen- 
tral dagoba was built has never been fully deter- 
mined; but it is generally supposed that this, to- 
gether with the open-work bell-shaped dagobas in the 
three circular terraces around the top, was built over 
some of the sacred ashes of Buddha. 



180 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

According to the account of Buddha's death his 
remains were buried in eight different towns. 
" King Asoka, 264 years B. C, caused seven of these 
tombs to be opened and 80,000 parts of the ashes to 
be preserved in vases in order to have them distrib- 
uted over the kingdom and the surrounding coun- 
try." It is thought that the Buddhists brought 
some of these ashes to Java and covered them with 
the dagobas, building the temple around them, as 
the style of the architecture shows that the builders 
of Boro-Boedor were Hindus. 

The central dagoba is fifty feet in diameter and 
was originally walled in. The English opened it but 
found nothing besides a deep hole and an unfinished 
Buddha resting on a pedestal. The hole is now 
filled in with earth and fallen stone and nothing but 
the head of the Buddha appears above the chaotic 
mass. 

It is the general belief of those who have examined 
the sculptured galleries that they represent some part 
in the life and worship of Buddha and his disciples, 
and naturally it took a large number of these sculp- 
tured pictures to portray the subject. For ninety 
years archaeologists have been working almost con- 
stantly in deciphering the sculptures on the walls of 
the five galleries, but only a few of the vast number 
have been satisfactorily worked out. 

One never tires of wandering around these gal- 
leries, for the richness and infinite variety of the 




A Buddha from Boro-Boedor 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR 181 

sculptures keep one constantly interested. It is not 
until the shadows begin to lengthen and you know it 
is time to hasten to Buddha's Nirvana at the top to 
see the sun set, that you take your last glimpse and 
promise yourself another view of the sculptures 
when you again visit the top to see the sun rise at the 
first dawn of day. By some rough stone steps you 
ascend the central dome of the cone, which formerly 
surrounded this dagoba, though nothing is now left 
of it but a part of the pedestal, ten feet broad. I 
found it difficult to stand there, for the wind was 
blowing very hard and I felt as though I might sud- 
denly be dashed to the broken stones below and run 
the chance of joining Buddha in Nirvana. One 
soon forgets the danger, however, as the great pano- 
rama unfolds itself, for it seems as if this must be 
Buddha's chosen spot, and nothing but paradise 
could be more lovely. 

As soon as the sun had set we left the temple, and 
I saw on the way what looked to be a monkey 
walking up a tall cocoanut tree. Both the South 
Sea Islanders and the Javanese have a way of climb- 
ing trees which is more like walking up them than 
climbing, and they can walk up a tree fifty or sixty 
feet in height with the ease and grace of a monkey. 
On close inspection the figure proved to be a little 
naked native boy, carrying some small pails made 
from the bamboo tree to catch the sap from the cocoa- 
nut tree, which the natives make into a delicious su- 



182 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

gar. I had seen in the " passer " at Garoet a simi- 
lar sugar made from the date-palm, though much 
inferior in quality, but it is only in central Java the 
sugar yielding cocoanut trees are to be found. 
These trees bear tapping for five years before the 
process kills them. 

It was dark when I returned to the hotel, for 
there is no twilight at the equator and when the sun 
has gone down it is pitch dark. The piazza was 
lighted with a large kerosene lamp. In more pre- 
tentious hotels one of these lamps hangs before the 
door of each guest chamber, and usually there are a 
writing table and rocking chairs for yourself and 
friends. One would naturally conclude that such a 
locality would be a delightful place to spend a warm 
evening in the tropics, but this is not so, for these 
lamps are nothing more nor less than a beacon to 
allure all the insects in the neighborhood which come 
thrashing in droves against one's face, the tables and 
the walls, and the whole piazza is soon a mass of 
crawling, creeping things. To add to the discom- 
fort numerous little lizards scamper along the walls 
and floors after these insects, until you simply flee to 
your room and shut the door, almost afraid to light 
the night lamp, which consists of a little wick that 
floats in a cup of cocoanut oil on a little cork at one 
end, for fear your room will be filled with insects. 

The evening being warm and sultry, I went out to 
sit on the steps of the old ruin and see the moon rise, 



GREAT TEMPLE OF BORO-BOEDOR 183 

gilding the splendid old pile from its topmost dome 
to its lowest terrace with a beautiful silvery sheen 
that fell on the faces of the enshrined Buddhas, mak- 
ing them look so ghastly one is almost afraid they 
will rise from their lotus thrones and come down the 
great processionals of the terraced galleries. Long 
I sat there enjoying the lovely scene and letting my 
thoughts wander at their own free will. At first 
there was not a sound to break the stillness of the 
night beyond the rustling of the leaves on the great 
canary trees that grew on either side of the broad 
avenue leading up to the temple; but after a while 
there came a sound such as I had never heard before, 
and one that seemed weird and uncanny enough to 
have come from the great Buddha himself in the 
land of Nirvana. It was the cry of the gecko, a 
hoarse, guttural noise that sounds like " Be-gone, be- 
gone, be-gone "; and I thought it was time for me to 
get beyond hearing of this horrid thing, bird or rep- 
tile, I knew not which. It may live in other parts 
of Java, but the only place I heard it was on Temple 
Hill. 



CHAPTER SIXTEEN 

JAVA AND THE DUTCH 

rpWO miles from Boro-Boedor is Chandi Mendoet, 
-*■ a temple supposed to have been built about 800 
A. D. One of the many noteworthy things that Sir 
Stamford Baffles did, during his short stay in Java, 
was to write the first history of the country, but no 
mention is made of this temple, for it was not discov- 
ered until seventy-nine years after Boro-Boedor. In 
one of the chapels of this temple sits a colossal Buddha 
with a large state umbrella, or pajong, over his head, 
and on either side of the Buddha stand colossal 
figures finely sculptured. In the back part of the 
temple the walls are splendidly decorated, and along 
the terraced pathway are some sculptures in bas 
relief exceedingly well executed. 

Returning to Djokja I went to the Hotel Toegoe, 
and when I registered at the office the hotelkeeper 
said "You are from America." He said that he 
too was an American, but that he was born in Ger- 
many and had gone to South America when a boy, 
being a naturalized citizen of the Argentine Repub- 
lic; but in one of the rebellions he had taken up arms 
against the President and had been banished from 
the country forever. Coming to Java he had mar- 

184 



JAVA AND THE DUTCH 185 

ried a Dutch woman, a misstep he greatly regretted, 
for he had been very prosperous in South America 
and had not met with much success in Java. 

Nowhere in Java was my stay so enjoyable as at 
this Hotel Toegoe. It is built in a large yard, with 
a very wide piazza extending far back under the 
upper story, which, with the magnificent large canary 
trees, makes it very shady; there was always a cool 
spot somewhere on this piazza. The manager of the 
hotel, a Mr. WesthofF, was broad-minded and very 
progressive, due probably to the fact that he had 
spent much of his life in America. He seemed 
much interested in travel and in travelers, and told 
me many stories about the " globe trotters " who had 
been guests at the hotel. " But," he added, " you 
are the first lady globe trotter I ever saw who trav- 
eled alone." 

He asked me many questions about my trips 
around the world, but most of all about my journey 
over the Great Siberian Railway, for this was the 
newest route around the world, and as the railroad 
was hardly completed at the time, but few people 
had made the journey. He was greatly impressed 
with the magnitude of that undertaking and said that 
probably nothing in the history of the world had ever 
equaled it. 

He asked me if I did not feel nervous in cross- 
ing Russia and Siberia, and remarked that he should 
think it would be the last trip a woman would con- 



186 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

template taking alone, especially one not acquainted 
with the language nor the manners and customs of 
the people. I told him there had been but few dis- 
agreeable experiences in the whole six thousand miles 
of travel, and that I had found it a very pleasing ex- 
perience. He spoke as if every part of him was alive, 
and his manner was so characteristically American I 
enjoyed it, for it was in strong contrast with the slow 
manner of the Dutch, who talk as if they had just 
wakened from a Rip Van Winkle sleep. 

" You must have a notice in our leading Djokja 
paper," he said, but the paper had such a long unpro- 
nounceable name I will not attempt to give it. 
" Oh," said I, " do you think that a Dutch newspaper 
in Java would condescend to notice a woman ' globe 
trotter ' from America? " 

" Yes, they will," he replied, " and I will write the 
article myself, for none of the editors speak 
English." 

Seating himself at one of the tables on the piazza 
he wrote an account of my arrival in Djokja and my 
journeyings over the world, which he handed to the 
editor of the paper with the long name, who ex- 
pressed himself as quite pleased to accept it. This 
was all quite different from my experiences in other 
parts of Java, for most of the Dutch people I had 
met were overbearing, narrow-minded and not at all 
inclined to be courteous to strangers, and it is due to 
the treatment travelers have received there that the 



JAVA AND THE DUTCH 187 

impression has gone forth that Java is a hard coun- 
try to travel in and that the Dutch do not care for 
foreigners. 

The weather at Djokja was somewhat warmer than 
at Batavia, but it did not seem so warm for the air 
was more invigorating, though, as in Batavia, not a 
drop of rain had fallen for seven months and a half. 
Java has the same temperature the year around, 
the wet and dry seasons being the only variation. 
These changes are caused by the different directions 
of the wind called " monsoons." The dry season is 
from April to October, and during this time the mon- 
soon blows from the southeast. From October to 
April is the wet season, and the monsoon blows then 
from the southwest. The dry season is the more en- 
joyable, for the days are hot and dry and the nights 
are cool; but during the wet season the heaviest 
rainfalls are often at night, making the night air 
very hot and stuffy, while the days are hot and 
steamy. 

One of my first questions on arriving at Djokja 
was whether the cholera had broken out on account 
of the long-continued drought, and I was informed 
that the drought was only detrimental to crops in 
this locality, for Djokja is one of the healthiest cities 
in Java. 

This city was the capital of the first Hindu em- 
pire, and it was the princes of this empire who built 
the many temples situated near Djokjakarta; but 



188 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

when Hinduism became more powerful in Java it 
was divided into two empires; the eastern, of which 
Majapahit was the capital, situated near what is now 
Soerabaya, and the western, of which Pajajaran was 
the capital, situated near Batavia, the new capital 
founded by the Dutch. The Dutch East India 
Company came to Java after the Mohammedan con- 
quest and when the country was ruled over by the 
Sultan or Susunhan, afterward called the Emperor, 
who lived in great splendor in the kingdom of 
Mataram in Central Java, the Hindu empire of 
Majapahit. 

The native princes disliked the Dutch East India 
Company as much as they had disliked the Mo- 
hammedans, and they rose in rebellion against them 
both, fighting with such bravery it often took the 
combined force of both to put down these rebel- 
lions. 

So, when the Mohammedan prince tried to drive 
the Dutch East India Company out of Java, it 
was not long before the native princes rose against 
him, and finding he had two enemies to fight, he 
made terms with the Dutch East India Company 
and sought their assistance in his wars against the 
native princes. For their assistance in these wars the 
Dutch received many grants and privileges ; and, after 
these wars and rebellions had been going on for a 
considerable length of time, the Dutch East India 
Company gained such power over the Mohammedan 



JAVA AND THE DUTCH 189 

prince of the kingdom of Mataram, that in 1748 he 
was forced to take the oath of allegiance to the Dutch 
East India Company and give them the whole of the 
north coast of Java. 

On the death of this prince, six years later, he 
bequeathed to the Dutch East India Company the 
whole of his kingdom, at the time in a state of rebel- 
lion provoked by his brother who had joined the 
native princes, and it was not until after a protracted 
war that this brother was induced to lay down his 
arms on the promise of half the kingdom of 
Mataram. He received the western portion and the 
title of Sultan of Djokja, but it was not long before 
the princes of the divided kingdom went to war with 
each other and the Dutch were again compelled to 
take a hand and settle the difficulty, for which they 
received more grants and privileges. 

The last war of the Dutch with Djokja was in 
1825 and lasted thirteen years. It was the most 
severe of all the Dutch wars in Central Java, and 
required all the force they could muster for five years 
to prevent defeat. At its close the princes of Central 
Java lost most of their kingdom and became mere 
pensioners of the Dutch government, and they have 
never been able since to regain their lost power. The 
Sultan of Djokja and the Susunhan of Soera-karta 
are mere figureheads and have no say whatever in the 
government of Java. They receive an annual in- 
come from the government and pay taxes on that 



190 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

part of their kingdom which remains to them, though 
they still try to retain their regal splendor in the 
small enclosures in which they live. 

Djokja was somewhat disappointing, for there was 
nothing ancient about it, nor are there any ancient 
ruins in it. Modern Djokja, however, is a lovely 
place, with wide clean streets so delightfully shaded 
that you can ride all over it without an umbrella to 
protect you from the sun, and the dwellings of the 
foreign residents, like those of all the modern cities in 
Java, are surrounded with large tropical trees and 
plants that almost hide them from view. One of my 
first visits was to the " passer," for " passers " must 
be visited early in the morning to see them at their 
best. It was quite extensive and thronged with 
native buyers and sellers of the various commodities 
to be found in the well-filled stalls. 

Of the twenty-two provinces and residences into 
which Java and the neighboring island of Madura 
are divided, Djokja is the capital of one of the most 
important. The Resident, or Governor, resides here 
in an imposing white mansion with large Doric 
columns in the front, and spacious grounds, laid out 
with much care and taste, contain many rare plants 
and trees from different parts of the world. Its 
beauty, however, is somewhat marred by the several 
hundred Hindu gods which have been brought from 
the neighboring temples and set up in rows in the 
yard for strangers to gaze upon and wonder at, giv- 



JAVA AND THE DUTCH 191 

ing it the appearance of a very ancient and over- 
crowded cemetery. 

The Sultan of Djokja's palace is near the center 
of the city, but it is no easy matter to obtain a glimpse 
of it, for it is built within a fort or enclosure, called 
a Kraton, which is surrounded by a high stone wall 
four miles in circumference. This enclosure is 
divided similarly to a city and has a population of 
over 15,000 inhabitants, all of whom are attached to 
the Sultan's court in one way or another, and it is 
only by permit from the Resident that entrance may 
be had to the Kraton. Although the Resident ad- 
dresses the Prince as " Toean Sultan," he does not 
allow him outside the Kraton without a permit, and 
he fully investigates the nature of his business before 
granting it. A company of native soldiers or 
dragoons with a Dutch captain act as a guard for the 
Sultan, and when the state processions take place 
Djokja presents a gala appearance for the people 
come from far and near to see a display which few 
oriental nations can surpass in magnificence and 
splendor. No one would ever surmise that the pres- 
ent Sultan is but a mere pensioner of the govern- 
ment; on the contrary, one would suppose him the 
real ruler with the wealth of a nation at his disposal. 

The carrying of pajongs, or state umbrellas, as a 
mark of distinction came from India, and anyone 
who is acquainted with the significance of the differ- 
ent colors knows at a glance the rank of the person 



192 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

over whom the pajong is carried. One of the most 
notable features of the state processions is the great 
number of these pajongs, there being no less than 
from fifteen to twenty that belong to the court of the 
Sultan. The pajong of the Sultan is golden, the 
Queen's is yellow and the Crown Prince's is white 
with a golden border. Another noticeable feature 
of the state procession is the great number of beetle 
boxes and fan bearers. The ballet forms the amuse- 
ment of the court, and every prince, from the high- 
est to the lowest, has his own dancers and musicians. 

The temples of Brambanan, supposed to have been 
built in the 11th century are, next to Boro-Boedor, 
the finest in Java. These temples are situated mid- 
way between the ancient capitals of Djokja-karta 
and Soera-karta, and by taking the early morning 
train we found there would be ample time to visit 
them and then proceed by a later train to Soera-karta 
or Solo, the abbreviation by which it is usually called. 

Arriving at the small country station of Bram- 
banan we learned that the temples had been passed 
a mile back, and that there was no way of reaching 
them but by walking through the burning hot sun 
and dust half a foot deep, over a rough country road 
that was minus shade trees. The situation was not 
at all pleasant, but we had only one alternative, to 
wait in the little hot station five hours for the next 
train to Solo, or to walk to the temples; so we con- 
cluded to run the risk of sunstroke and of being 




?:>.■- 





MNe 




The Temples of Brambanan 




Sculptures on the Temples of Brambanan 



JAVA AND THE DUTCH 193 

choked to death with dust, and proceeded on our jour- 
ney down the road with some natives in the lead, who 
assured us, by waving their hands in the direction of 
the temples, that they knew where we wanted to go. 

After walking for fifteen minutes we came to a 
turn in the road that led over the bridge across the 
Opak river, the temples being on the side opposite 
the railroad station, and a short way farther on we 
came to a large grove and a native village where we 
shook the dust from our clothing, wiped the perspira- 
tion from our faces and sat down to rest under the 
tall palms and canary trees. The natives flocked 
around us and stared curiously at us with their great 
black eyes, but they were quiet and gentle in man- 
ner; nor did we hear a loud discordant voice even on 
the crowded streets of that little village. As a matter 
of fact all the native villages we visited in Java were 
just as orderly as this one. Even when the 
" passers " were in progress and the streets were so 
crowded it was almost impossible to pass among the 
people, there was no fighting nor wrangling so char- 
acteristic of the native people of many oriental coun- 
tries, especially the Mohammedan. The Javanese 
are no more cleanly in their habits than any other 
orientals, but they are more gentle and law abiding 
and they favorably impress strangers, who soon have 
a kindly feeling for " the little people of Java " as 
they call themselves. 

Feeling quite rested we proceeded on our journey 



194 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLB 

and walked through the grove until we came to a 
short turn in the road, which led to the entrance of 
the wall encircling the splendid temple group known 
as the temples of Loro Jonggran, so named for the 
beautiful Hindu goddess who is worshiped in India 
under the name of Durga and Parvati. These 
temples resemble the Hindu temples of Southern 
India, and like them they are pyramidal in shape. 
Eight large temples, built in rows of three facing 
each other with two between, compose the group, 
which was originally surrounded with three circular 
walls with small temples between the second and 
third. With these small temples there were 165 in 
all. 

Both the outer walls and all the small temples are 
now gone, and nothing but the inner walls rise above 
the ground. Five of the eight temples are in a 
broken and dilapidated condition, two are only trace- 
able by their foundations, and it is only the three 
which form the west group that are in a fairly good 
state of preservation, or at least, sufficiently so to 
give one a good idea of how imposing the group must 
have been before earthquakes wrought such havoc 
among them. 

In the inner temple of the western group was the 
principal one which contained four rooms. In the 
west room is the ugly and repulsive elephant god, 
Ganesha, in the south room are the images of Siva 
and Parvati, while in the north room is the magnifi- 



JAVA AND THE DUTCH 195 

cent image of the four-armed goddess Loro-Jong- 
gran, after which the temples are named. In the 
south temple of this group is a broken Brahmin with 
some smaller ones lying on the floor. 

In the north temple, which is exactly like the south, 
was a Vishnu, seated between two gods, and piled in 
heaps were heads, arms, legs and parts of bas relief 
that had been broken from the outside decorations, 
for these temples were covered from top to bottom 
with bas relief and life-sized figures. None of these 
bas reliefs are perfect, except those which are on the 
temple of Loro Jonggran, among which are the life- 
sized figure known as the Three Graces, famous the 
world over for their beauty and considered the best 
types of Grecian Hindu art in Java. 

The art of sculpturing was brought into Java by 
the Hindus from India, where it had been learned 
from the Grecians who carried their art into the East, 
and nearly all the faces on the temples bear a striking 
resemblance to the Grecian type while none of them 
are Javanese. The Archaeological Society of Djokja 
commenced the laborious task of restoring these 
temples a few years ago, nothing having been done 
to them since they were cleared by Sir Stamford 
Raffles eighty-five years before, and most of them 
were again covered with vines and trees. After they 
were again cleared the task of restoring them was very 
difficult, for many of the parts were missing and 
broken. Where it was possible the stones were 



196 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

shoved together and piled in a way that greatly im- 
proved the appearance of the temple. In addition, 
the Djokja Society had laws passed forbidding the 
carrying off of any part of the temple under penalty 
of a heavy fine, but it seems rather strange that it 
took the Dutch so many years to come to the con- 
clusion that they should protect these ruins, for as 
much as one-third of them had been carried off at 
that time. 



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

LAST GLIMPSES OF JAVA 

/^1 LANCING at my watch I found more time than 
^-* I supposed had been consumed in visiting the 
temples, and that only by walking briskly could we 
reach the station in time for the train to Solo; but 
when within a few minutes' walk of the station the 
train went screeching past us and it began to look as 
if we would have to spend the night in one of the 
huts of the native villages, for there are no hotels or 
foreign houses within some miles of Brambanan. To 
my surprise, however, the station agent came to the 
door and waved his hand for us to hurry, for he was 
holding the train until our arrival. He met me at 
the door with a ticket and told me to pay the conduc- 
tor for it on the train, and both the conductor and 
brakeman helped me on board, — a courtesy I little 
expected from the railroad employes, especially under 
the stiff, stern Dutch rule in Java. Still another 
agreeable surprise awaited me for there were no other 
first class passengers, and I had the whole compart- 
ment to myself. In hot countries like Java, one 
wants as much room as possible for the air to cir- 
culate, and sitting near a fellow traveler is simply 
torture. 

There was little of interest on the journey for the 

19T 



198 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

railroad ran through a level country planted mostly 
with rice and indigo. Arriving at Solo we found the 
railroad station was some distance from the town, but 
it did not take us long to decide where we would 
stop, for the Hotel Slyer is the only good one in the 
place and we were soon on our way toward the capital 
of the Susunhan or Emperor. 

The Kraton, or palace enclosure in which the 
Susunhan resides, is situated in the center of Solo. It 
is painted white and something over four miles in 
circumference. The court of this monarch far sur- 
passes that of the Sultan of Djokja in regal splendor, 
although his retinue numbers five thousand. All the 
forms and usages of his royal ancestors are permitted 
him at his court within the Kraton walls, but his 
power extends no further, for he is always under the 
watchful eye of the Resident, who never allows him 
outside the Kraton except with a permit. 

The Susunhan still adheres to all the old customs 
and usages of his ancestors, and the Crown Prince 
and all the royal household are obliged to assume the 
same humiliating attitude in his presence as the com- 
monest servant of the court. This posture is called 
the " dodok." It is a squatting position, with the 
heels so bent that the person appears to be sitting on 
them and resting his body on his toes. In this pos- 
ture the subject is obliged to hop and slide around 
the room never daring to rise or turn his back upon 
royalty. 



LAST GLIMPSES OF JAVA 199 

Another custom quite as humiliating as the 
" dodok " consists of the different degrees of respect 
which the members of the Susunhan's court are 
permitted to show him according to their individual 
rank. The Crown Prince is permitted to kiss his 
royal father's hand; the princes next in rank kiss his 
knee; the highest officers of the court kiss his instep 
while those of lower rank kiss the sole of his foot. 

I was told that the Susunhan of Solo was not a 
very old man, but one would hardly dare guess the 
age of a Javanese, for in countries where girls are 
often mothers at ten and boys fathers at fourteen, 
people look much older than they really are. He 
has a pleasant countenance and his face shows he is 
much above the common classes of Javanese. He 
wears a foreign military jacket, trimmed with gold 
cord and lace and ornamented with his royal orders, 
an Arabian fez, a native sarong and toe slippers. A 
court sword hangs at his left side with a handsomely 
carved sheath, and through the back of his belt sticks 
a jeweled kris. 

There are usually three great court fetes during 
the year which take place on the Mohammedan New 
Year and during Ramadam, the great fasting time 
of the Mohammedans, and at the Queen of Holland's 
birthday. The scenes at the Court of Prince Mang- 
koe Negoro at these times are worth a trip around 
the world to see. The court ballet of native dancers, 
with their strange masks and dresses, forms one of 



200 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

the most interesting features of these fetes, and a 
grand procession takes place at the time of these fes- 
tivities in which many royal carriages, different col- 
ored pa jongs, beetle boxes, fan bearers, and all the 
great retinue of the Susunhan, march through the 
streets of Solo with native and foreign bands of 
music. 

Solo is built on a plain broken by the winding 
course of the Solo river, which is the largest in Java 
and navigable for more than three hundred miles. 
Much has been written about the beauty of this plain 
which some writers say is the prettiest spot in the 
world, while others call it the Paradise of the East. 
Solo is the second city in size and built much like the 
other modern cities of Java, but it is much prettier 
because of its beautiful location and much more inter- 
esting because it is the capital of the Susunhan and 
because one sees there more of the better classes of the 
Javanese. Its streets are broad and clean with great 
rows of tamarin trees on either side. 

Of the foreign dwellings the Resident's mansion is 
the most imposing and second only to the palace of 
the Susunhan. At the hotel there was the usual 
saronged and pajamad crowd, with bare feet and 
ankles. From the ceiling of the piazza hung the 
great kerosene lamp, or bug beacon, and the little 
lizards had not diminished in number, for they scam- 
pered in droves over the piazza after the bugs. We 
learned that the bite of these little lizards is not 



LAST GLIMPSES OF JAVA 201 

poisonous, nor is the bite of the spiders or tarantulas 
fatal in Java. This lessened our dislike for the frisky 
little creatures, which before had been our torment 
for our room was always full of them. 

It makes very little difference how many towns 
one visits in Java, the first visit is usually to the " pass- 
ers," which never seem to lose any of their attractive- 
ness for the stranger. Solo's " passer " is one of 
the best in Java and one can visit it several times 
without seeing it all. It was quite scattered and 
it took considerable walking and hunting before we 
were sure we had reached its limits. There were 
quantities of fruit and flowers and in fact most of the 
principal products of the world were massed together 
in the different booths. 

The pawnshops of Solo are far ahead of those in 
Djokja, there are so many of them and they contain 
a greater variety and a much better quality of things. 
They all have krisses in great numbers, from the re- 
cently manufactured articles to the very old ones. 

There are so many different kinds of krisses one 
often thinks he is being imposed upon in the knives 
shown him, for there are nearly fifty different varie- 
ties used in the East Indies alone, besides more than 
a hundred used in the Malay peninsula. The kris, 
no doubt, came from Malay; but according to the old 
legends of Java, Panji was the inventor of it and he is 
said to have brought it with him from India and to 
have been the first to introduce it into Java. Panji 



302 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and his various exploits are now thought to be myths, 
but at any rate this knife was adopted by the Java- 
nese as a badge of fidelity, and anyone who wore the 
kris was considered a loyal citizen. They wore it 
during the day and slept with it by their side at night ; 
to lose it, was to lose both citizenship and honor. The 
peasants, or common classes, were never considered 
citizens and hence they were never allowed to wear the 
kris ; but to all other classes who had attained the age 
of fifteen the privilege was granted. Even women 
of rank were allowed to wear it, and princes of the 
highest rank wore two or more. 

The veining of the kris is produced by welding soft 
and hard metals together and soaking them in lime 
juice and arsenic to eat the iron away. It was this 
process that gave rise to the idea that all krisses were 
poisoned, and that a stab from one of them was fatal. 
Such is not the case, however, for the arsenic and the 
lime juice were only used to brighten the blade and 
to make the veins show to better advantage. 

The Javanese were always considered the best kris 
makers, for they understood how to work iron so as 
to give it hardness and durability and they knew how 
to weld the different metals together so as to produce 
the fine veining which makes the kris so valuable. 
Most of the krisses are manufactured now in Europe 
and they are no longer used in Java as a means of 
defense. 

Solo has one of the largest Chinatowns or Kam- 




, .---^K 4 

A Javanese Street Dancer 



LAST GLIMPSES OF JAVA 203 

pongs in Java. It is much more cleanly than these 
towns generally are and judging from the number 
of well-dressed Chinese seen in the streets it is in a 
flourishing condition. More than two-thirds of its 
population are Parankas, a mixture of Chinese and 
Javanese, for they have been marrying and inter- 
marrying for more than three centuries and a half. 
The mixture of the two races, however, has in no wise 
changed the business-like money-making propensities 
to be found in the genuine Chinaman. 

The Parankas wear the queue and adhere strictly 
to all Chinese customs ; they are much more intelligent 
than the native people and hold a very important 
place in the business centers of Java. Moreover, they 
have always been able to hold their own with the 
Dutch in all commercial transactions, and though the 
Dutch govern them with much severity and pretend 
to dislike them greatly, they nevertheless approve of 
their cunning, crafty and underhanded ways of do- 
ing business. 

Some years ago laws were passed forbidding them 
to come into the country; but these laws were soon 
repealed, for the Dutch found out they could not get 
along without them, for there was no one to do the 
dirty work. It has been the custom of the Dutch for 
many years whenever they had a disagreeable piece of 
work to be done, to turn it over to the Chinese who 
have always proved themselves equal to the occasion. 

The Parankas are made to pay exorbitant taxes 



204 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and they are taxed both when they come into the coun- 
try and when they leave it; but with all the severity 
the Dutch heap upon them they are the most pros- 
perous people in Java. They are often seen dressed 
in the finest European clothes and many of the rich- 
est of them live in beautiful villas. In fact, they 
seldom live in houses like those of the native people, 
and most of their kampongs are built of brick. 

Leaving Solo by the early morning train we found 
we would arrive at Djokja in time for the afternoon 
train for Maos, where we must spend another night 
at the Government Hotel and then proceed the next 
day to Tjiandjoer, this being the stopping place for 
those who wished to visit the sanitarium of Sin- 
danglaja. Tjiandjoer is situated at the foot of the 
mountain and the locality is extremely warm. Ponies 
and carts for the accommodation of the guests are 
usually sent from the sanitarium to meet all the trains, 
so after selecting two of the best, one for myself and 
one for my baggage and servant, we began to climb 
the mountain. The road was in good condition and it 
required very little "heeing" and pounding of the 
ponies, for they seemed to be in good trim and little 
affected by the journey. 

The mountain is 3000 feet in height. When we 
were half way up the air was much cooler and when 
we reached the top it seemed like stepping into an ice 
house on a warm summer's day after being in the 
hot country below. The thermometer stood at about 



LAST GLIMPSES OF JAVA 205 

70°, a temperature which prevails the year around, 
the only variation being at night when it is somewhat 
colder and blankets become necessary. It was a 
pleasant change after being so long in the heat of 
central Java. 

We found the sanitarium sadly deserted, although 
there were plenty of people at Buitenzorg and 
Garoet only a short distance away, who had been there 
for their health for these places are so warm and 
trying, and there was not a person at this delightful 
mountain resort. The sanitarium is two stories high, 
with great wide piazzas both upstairs and down, and 
one could walk into the upper story from one side of 
the mountain. The place seemed very desolate and 
lonesome. All kinds of amusements had been pro- 
vided for the guests, billiards, croquet, a bowling alley 
and a gymnasium. Every tree, shrub and plant that 
grew on the mountains was in bloom and the air was 
laden with the most delicious perfume. Growing 
about the sanitarium were some of the finest trees I 
saw in Java. 

Every afternoon there was a heavy shower that 
made the air cool and fresh, and after three days of 
rest and quiet I felt quite myself again. At six 
o'clock one morning the ponies and carts were sent 
around to gather up my belongings and I started 
across the mountain to Buitenzorg. It took nearly 
five hours to make the trip though the ponies went at 
a brisk trot except in the steepest places. The road 



206 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

wound through a thick, tropical jungle and at this 
early morning hour it was not uncomfortably warm. 

The climate of Buitenzorg was very oppressive 
after my stay at the sanitarium. The city has the 
finest fruit market in Java, one that is always very at- 
tractive, for nearly all the different fruits that grow 
on the island are sold there twice a week and no coun- 
try in the world has such a number of indigenous 
fruits as Java. One can visit it many times before 
becoming familiar with them all. 

One of the most beautiful fruits is the rambutan. 
It looks more like a nut than a fruit, for it is covered 
with a shell of long spines resembling the burr of a 
nut, and shaded from the most delicate pink to the 
deepest red. The fruit is very attractive and the 
stranger generally buys it for its gorgeous coloring. 
When the shell is pulled open there is a juicy white 
pulp which is very delicious. The managosteen has 
long been called the finest tropical fruit of the Indies 
and the Malay Peninsula, where it grows in great 
perfection. It begins to ripen in the fall and may be 
had as late as January. It grows round like an 
apple, of a dark purplish color, and hangs from the 
trees on long woody stems. When the thick outer 
rind is cut open the inside shows a delicate pink. It 
is easily opened for the shell parts in the middle and 
the two lobes contain a white pulp which is considered 
the most deliciously flavored of all the tropical fruits. 

Those who have made the trip around the world 



LAST GLIMPSES OF JAVA 20T 

by way of Penang are well acquainted with the 
durian, for the captains of the steamers usually give 
the passengers many accounts of this fruit and its 
various odors before this port is reached, and this is 
the place where it is bought. The captain of the 
steamer I sailed in had a particular dislike for the 
durian and he told me he always anchored out as far 
as possible so he could not smell this fruit from the 
shore as the odor always made him ill. He told all 
the passengers who went on shore not to bring one on 
the ship for he would surely throw them overboard 
if they did. This only made the passengers the more 
desirous of tasting them, and as soon as I landed I 
went in search of the fruit and found a good sized 
pile. I called a native boy to help me select one of 
the best, and to my surprise he chose the one I thought 
the worst of the bunch. The fact is they must be 
very ripe before they are good and when they are in 
this condition the skin is very much broken and they 
have an odor like decaying onions and overripe eggs. 
The one I purchased weighed about five pounds. I 
had it taken to the hotel where the native boys peeled 
off the outer skin and divided it into sections like a 
melon. It was of a creamy white color with black 
seeds, but the pulp which grows around the seeds is 
the only part eaten. It tastes like the finest Spanish 
onions cooked in thick rich cream, but after eating a 
few rnouthfuls I found it was too rich, and fearing 
it would make me sick I gave it to the native boys 



208 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

who fought over it like a lot of dogs over a bone. A 
gentleman told me he had seen English children hav- 
ing just such a squabble over the durian, for Euro- 
peans learn to like it just as well as the natives. The 
outside of the durian is rough and covered with spines 
that are disagreeable to the touch. It grows at a con- 
siderable height from the ground and it is allowed to 
hang on the trees until ripe, when it falls of itself. 
It grows in every part of the Archipelago and the 
Malay Peninsula. Some writers have pronounced it 
the finest fruit in the world, while others declare that 
the fetid odor of the outside rind would condemn it, 
no matter how delicious the inside pulp might be. 
One thing is certain, its odor has given it a reputa- 
tion beyond every other fruit that grows. 



FRENCH INDOCHINA 



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 

SAIGON AND HAIPHONG 

/^\N my return to Batavia I found the steamer 

^^ about to sail, and I was soon on my way to 

Tand-jony-priok, the seaport. The steamer was 

another of the Royal Steam Packet Company's boats 

and exactly like all the boats of this line. On the 

third morning at daylight after leaving Java we 

arrived at Singapore. The mail steamers were in 

ahead of us and lying alongside the dock. All the 

passengers had to do was to change steamers, and 

within a half hour, all except those who remained in 

Singapore, were on their way to their respective 

destinations. I had hoped to meet one of the large 

Massageries Maritimes mail steamers, but instead 

there was only a small cargo steamer of this line. It 

proved more comfortable, however, than it looked, for 

there were six first class cabins opening off the dining 

saloon and they were good sized and clean. 

When the Saigon river was reached the ship slowed 

down and a pilot came on board to take us up the 

river, for Saigon is sixty-five miles from its mouth. 

It took from four in the afternoon till eleven the next 

day to run this distance, and the heat and mosquitoes 

were terrible. The large warehouses along the river 

211 



212 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

front give Saigon an imposing appearance as it first 
comes into view, for some of these buildings have 
great Chinese dragons on top, which give them the 
appearance of old Chinese temples. 

Saigon is a great surprise to the stranger for one 
hardly expects to find such a beautiful city in such a 
locality; it is Paris in every respect only on a smaller 
scale. It has the same temperature the year around, 
always scorching hot, and there is scarcely an attrac- 
tive place in all the country around it. The land is 
low for the most part and the territory was once rice 
fields that have since been filled in. It is a very un- 
healthful locality and foreigners have every disease 
known to hot, unhealthy tropical countries. The 
mosquitoes are numerous and as annoying as they are 
along the Amazon. The city is laid out in squares 
with parallel streets, clean and well shaded by large 
trees. All the streets are paved and lighted by elec- 
tricity. 

The residences of the foreign population are gen- 
erally one story and cover considerable ground. Most 
of them have large yards filled with tropical trees and 
plants, and they are quite as attractive as the foreign 
towns of Java. There is only one grand avenue 
through the place and this runs to the Botanical and 
Zoological Gardens. These gardens are interesting 
and very prettily laid out. Their main attraction, 
however, is the collection of birds, for there is such 
a number and variety of tropical birds and many of 



SAIGON AND HAIPHONG 213 

them have gorgeous plumage. Orchids of rare 
beauty grow in open work baskets and hang every- 
where from the branches of the trees. 

The hotels resemble cafes and restaurants more 
than hotels for they have only a few rooms that have 
been added for the accommodation of guests. None 
of them are good nor are they clean ; and one examines 
the bed linen very carefully to make sure it has been 
changed since the last occupant left the room. 

One of my fellow travelers told me about his ex- 
perience in one of these hotels. He said he was 
greatly exhausted by the heat and fell asleep when he 
retired, but was soon awakened by an awful noise 
which he was sure came from the mattress under him. 
Examining it he found one of the largest rats he had 
ever seen with six young ones all in a nest in the 
mattress. After that I examined not only the linen 
on the bed but the mattress as well. 

These cafes are the resorts of the foreign popula- 
tion of Saigon. The people go to them as soon as 
the sun is down to drink coffee and wine and to enjoy 
a social time until long after midnight. In this hot, 
sticky, steamy climate a tight-fitting dress is very 
uncomfortable and the women wear Mother Hubbard 
wrappers ; but they are so " Frenchified " with doz- 
ens of little lace ruffles they usually look like night- 
robes. 

The wide-brim cork hats which they wear to protect 
themselves from the sun, are also covered with dainty 



214 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

white frills that make them very unbecoming, except 
to very young women, for the frills have too childlike 
an appearance. All these women, however, have 
costly Parisian gowns for extra occasions so when 
they choose to wear their foreign gowns the women 
in the French possession of China are the most 
stylishly dressed in the Far East. 

At five o'clock the foreign residents come out for 
a drive on the grand avenue which runs through the 
place, their carriages of the latest French build and 
drawn by fiery little native ponies which are good 
travelers, and these rigs are as attractive in appear- 
ance as those seen on the fashionable drives in Paris. 
The Governor's Palace, the Grand Cathedral and the 
Opera House are the finest and most costly buildings 
in the place. The theater is subsidized by the govern- 
ment and this, with the proceeds from the sale of 
tickets pays the theatrical company. The expense 
of bringing the company from Paris is also borne by 
the government. With all the comforts and pleas- 
ures with which the French have surrounded them- 
selves in Cochin- China, however, they cannot change 
the miserable climate, and they are a pale-faced sickly- 
looking lot of people who feel their exile keenly. 

Cochin-China was the first territory taken by the 
French. It was acquired in the early sixties, and they 
have been in possession of it ever since. It was then 
a narrow strip of land lying along the sea-coast, but 
since that time they have greatly increased their terri- 



SAIGON AND HAIPHONG 215 

tory for they have annexed Cambodia, Tonkin, An- 
nam and, after a difficulty with Siam, they annexed 
Laos. The last territory acquired by them was 
Kwang-chan-wan, in the Chinese province of Kwang- 
tung. Saigon being the capital has always been the 
most important city; and although it is the largest 
commercial port in Cochin-China, it is losing its im- 
portance since Hanoi has been made the capital of all 
French Indo- China. 

It was with few regrets I took my departure from 
Saigon. After staying in this heated locality for 
several days and suffering from dirty hotels and poor 
cooking, my admiration of the place had constantly 
diminished although, with these exceptions, the city 
is a little Paris. We were to have left Saigon at nine 
in the morning but we were delayed as the boat did 
not leave the dock until eleven. It moved out into the 
middle of the stream where we remained until three 
in the afternoon waiting for the tide to run in so we 
could proceed down the river. It was so frightfully 
hot the passengers could not sit out on deck under 
the awning, but were obliged to go to their cabins and 
remain in them until the boat was under way. 

On the main deck there were at least fifty native 
Annamese, some of whom were servants of the first 
class passengers. Two of them were wet-nurses for 
two white-robed pale-faced French babies, and never 
in my life have I witnessed such a disgusting sight as 
these babies presented, nursing these dirty, filthy 



216 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

women who were chewing betel or areca nut and ex- 
pectorating the red saliva over the deck of the boat 
until it looked like a slaughter house. The mothers 
would hand their babies to these dirty begrimed 
women with as much indifference as if they were the 
white-aproned, daintily capped children's maids one 
sees in Paris. 

With all the delays it took five days to reach Hai- 
phong, a river town at the mouth of the Cua-cam 
river, where two sand bars gave our boat great diffi- 
culty in crossing. It is these sand bars that prevent 
Haiphong from being the largest commercial port in 
Indo- China, for, with all the large sums of money 
and the labor the French have expended on this river, 
they have not been able to deepen it sufficiently for 
large boats to navigate it, though it has been greatly 
improved and splendid docks have been built at Hai- 
phong, that make landing an easy matter. The cus- 
toms house is near the landing and the baggage of all 
the passengers was examined. The French in Tonkin 
have adopted a system of high tariffs for the protec- 
tion of their colonial trade, and this has proved some- 
what detrimental to their commercial interests for it 
has restricted the liberty of the people and prevented 
capitalists from coming into the country. 

One can scarcely believe the stories related about 
the appearance of Haiphong twenty years ago. It 
is said that at that time it was nothing more than a 
mudhole which was nearly inundated at high tide. It 



SAIGON AND HAIPHONG 217 

is also said that great swamps surrounded it and that 
every door yard contained a pool of filthy water. 
When a lot was bought for building purposes, it was 
staked off in the mud and water and the site had to be 
filled in to give the house a foundation to stand upon. 
It has been greatly improved since that time under 
the French rule, and the large expenditure of French 
francs has made it into an elegant and well-built city. 
Its streets are wide, clean and well paved, with a num- 
ber of driveways and boulevards, and there are good 
sewers and waterworks and the streets are lighted 
with electricity. The residence portion is very pretty, 
the houses large and imposing, with extensive grounds 
around them but they are not so charming as those 
of Saigon, for tropical trees and plants do not thrive 
well in this climate. 

The French mode of living is quite different in 
Tonkin from that in France. The climate is the cause 
of some of the changes for there are seven months of 
very warm weather and five of damp, chilly weather 
with quantities of rain. The latter season they call 
the most enjoyable of the year, but it is far from 
pleasant, for the dampness is so uncomfortable and 
none of the hotels or houses are heated. 

The coffee breakfast one learns to like so much in 
France has been done away with, and the people go 
to work at eight in the morning on an empty stomach. 
At eleven they quit work and go home to breakfast, 
when all business comes to a standstill and all the 



218 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

stores and business houses are locked, and the streets 
deserted. This continues until two in the afternoon, 
for three hours is the time allowed for this meal, or 
about an hour and a half in its consumption and the 
rest of the time is spent in drinking coffee, playing 
cards and taking siestas. 

The banks close at five but the stores are open until 
six. At five Haiphong's streets are full of people, 
and the ladies come out for a drive along the boule- 
vard, dressed in their Parisian gowns. They would 
not be called pretty women, although they are won- 
derfully made up, for they are very thin and look as 
if they were suffering from the effects of the climate. 
There are no street cars nor public conveyances ex- 
cept rikshas drawn by Annamese coolies, who make 
better riksha men than anything else, for, although 
they are small, they are very strong and capable of 
pulling a good-sized load. 

There are several hotels of which the Hotel du 
Commerce is considered the best. It is a fine-looking 
building from the outside but this is the extent of its 
fineness, for it is very dirty and the meals are mis- 
erable. All the servants are Annamese, who do not 
make as good servants as the Chinese for they are not 
so intelligent. The French do not treat them very 
gently, they push and shove them around and pay 
them very small wages. They have adopted a system 
of having them all registered and photographed, and 
refuse to employ any who have not a certificate from 



SAIGON AND HAIPHONG 219 

the police that they have complied with the law; so 
if any are guilty of wrong doing they can be easily 
punished. 

There is no parlor or reception room in the Hotel 
du Commerce, but it is the fashionable resort for the 
well-to-do people of Haiphong. At seven dinner is 
served and there is a complete change of dress for this 
meal. A large, dirty room opens on the piazza, and 
this is a kind of restaurant, billiard and card room, 
where the people congregate after dinner to drink 
coffee, play cards and have a social chat. 

The theater is one of the largest and most expensive 
buildings in the place but it has a comparatively small 
seating capacity which is usually very much crowded. 
The same artists play both at Haiphong and at 
Hanoi, three months at each place during the year. 
The theaters are owned and leased by the government 
and the same lessee has control of both, for which he 
receives a subsidy from the government. Almost 
everything one wants may be bought at Haiphong 
stores for they are well stocked with all kinds of 
French goods and they are as " Frenchy " in appear- 
ance as though brought bodily from France. The 
three banks and the stores are said to do a good busi- 
ness. French Indo-China has not been a source of 
revenue to the mother country and it will be some 
time before France will realize the large sums of 
money she has spent on her colonies in China. 



CHAPTER NINETEEN 

HANOI, THE PARIS OF THE ORIENT 

IT is eighty miles by railroad from Haiphong to 
Hanoi ; the road is narrow gauge and the cars are 
built after the American plan, with an aisle running 
through the center. The train consisted of three 
coaches; the first and second class passengers were in 
the same car, separated by a partition with lavatory 
between; the third class was for the natives. All the 
rolling stock of this road was manufactured in 
France. It was a very expensive road to build for 
there were so many streams to bridge and all the iron 
work of the bridges was manufactured in France 
and sent out ready to be put together. The great 
bridge of Hanoi over the Red River has made this 
railroad somewhat famous, for the structure is mag- 
nificent and one of the longest in the world. It is 
built of steel and rests on a foundation of hard gray 
sandstone found in Tonkin. This bridge runs for 
some distance across a flat country before it crosses 
the river, and then it joins a stone aqueduct six hun- 
dred meters long and very picturesque. It has but 
one track, on either side of which is a foot path for 
pedestrians. The railroad station at Hanoi is a fine 
large building. It is intended to make this the grand 
central station for the many railroads that have been 
projected for Tonkin. 

220 




The Great Bridge over the Red River, Hanoi 




The Railroad Station, Hanoi 



HANOI, THE PARIS OF THE ORIENT 221 

Hanoi, the capital of French Indo-China, like Sai- 
gon and Haiphong, resembles Paris except that it is 
smaller. Its site was once a large swamp, but one 
can scarcely realize that such is the case when riding 
along sixty miles of well-paved streets and boule- 
vards, nearly all of which are bordered with shade trees 
and most of them are lighted by electricity. 

Hanoi's public conveyances are an electric tramway 
and the " Pousse-Pousses." The electric tram car 
runs through the town and for a considerable dis- 
tance through the suburbs. It is patronized by for- 
eigners and natives alike, having both first and second 
class accommodations. The principal conveyances, 
however, are the Pousses-Pousses (pronounced che), 
which is the French for jinrikisha. The best I ever 
rode in were in Hanoi. They had been manufactured 
for the Paris Exposition and had ball-bearing bicycle 
wheels with rubber tires. You could ride in them all 
day and not feel fatigued for there was no jar such 
as is felt when riding in the ordinary rikshas. 

The citadel is some distance from the center of the 
town but it is easily reached by the electric tramway. 
It was the old Annamese fortress and the old walls 
are still standing. It is now used as the headquarters 
of the army in Tonkin. 

On my way back I stopped to see the Botanical 
Gardens with a small Zoological Garden at one end 
and containing some fine specimens of the animals and 
reptiles of Indo-China. These Botanical Gardens 



222 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

are very attractive, having many shade trees and some 
fine driveways. They are the fashionable resort for 
the residents of Hanoi, who come here to drive in their 
carriages and sit under the trees until late in the after- 
noon. At this time of day the gardens present a 
lively appearance, for nearly all the French people 
keep a carriage and a span of ponies, and it is sur- 
prising how well these little steeds look when well 
groomed and with a harness that fits them. The car- 
riages are so built they do not look too large and cum- 
bersome for the ponies, and the little Annamese 
coachmen and footmen, wearing a most becoming 
livery which fits their forms nicely and consists of a 
moderately high hat and top boots, sit as straight 
as an arrow and with folded arms. 

The race course is easily reached from the Botanical 
Gardens. The races are well attended and take place 
on Sunday. Considerable money changes hands on 
these occasions for betting is freely indulged by both 
the men and the women. The race horses are the little 
Tonkin ponies which are too small for Europeans to 
ride, so they are ridden by little Annamese boys, 
dressed in the colors of the owners. Some of the 
ponies are quite speedy and the races are generally 
very exciting. 

There are many lakes around Hanoi which give 
one the impression that the town is surrounded by 
water. In the center of the city is Petit Lac and in 
the center of this lake is an island reached by a pretty 



HANOI, THE PARIS OF THE ORIENT 



esa 



bridge, and in the center of this island is an old An- 
namese temple with a statue of liberty on top, which 
was paid for by contributions of the native people. 
This lake is another resort for Hanoi's people on a 
warm summer evening, for the island has a small hotel 
or cafe near the lake where the people can drop in 
for a game of cards and a social chat. 

Not far from this lake is the Roman Catholic Ca- 
thedral, the finest church in the place. There is also 
a small Protestant French church near by, but the 
largest and most magnificent buildings are the two 
palaces, one occupied by the Resident Superior of 
Tonkin, the other by the Governor General of Indo- 
China. 

Hanoi has a great variety of shops and many kinds 
of French goods can be bought but they are very 
dear. Although there were both French bakers and 
butchers neither the bread nor the meat was good, and 
besides, the French do not patronize the native mar- 
kets for they have their own. In the native town 
there is a long street where most of the shops are situ- 
ated. In one part of this street were the blacksmiths 
and iron workers, in another those who worked in brass 
and in still another the jewelers; but there was noth- 
ing worth buying to take out of the country. 

Hanoi's hotels, cafes and boarding houses are nu- 
merous but none of them first class. The Hotel 
Metropole is the best ; it is new and has a fine appear- 
ance. I was led to believe it was the best hotel in the 



2M NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Far East, but I was disappointed, for there is nothing 
first-class about it beyond its situation on the Boule- 
vard Henri Riviera, just opposite the palace of the 
Resident Superior of Tonkin. 

The dining room is large with high ceilings and 
well adapted to hot weather. A cafe was being built 
adjoining it, which extended back into the yard at 
the rear of the hotel. The waiters were Chinese but 
all other servants in the hotel were Annamese. Din- 
ner was served at 7:00 P. M. and there were always 
many private dinner parties. These meals evidently 
had been ordered in advance for they were much better 
than the regular bill of fare. At half past eight the 
people began to arrive at the hotel, where they seated 
themselves at small tables in the cafe, and with a few 
words to the Annamete boy in pigeon French, they 
secured whatever kind of drink they wanted. A pack 
of cards was brought with the order and they spent 
the evening playing, smoking and chatting ; the ladies 
joining in these pastimes seemingly with as much en- 
joyment as the men. 

One sees many uniforms on all public occasions, 
for French soldiers must always appear in regimen- 
tals. It appeared as if the whole country was made 
up of the army and a few government officials. As 
in Paris, the Hanoi citizens turn night into day and 
after spending a few hours at the cafes they go to 
balls, musicals and theaters, where they remain until 
nearly morning. 



HANOI, THE PARIS OF THE ORIENT 225 

At the time of my visit the Exposition was the 
great attraction there. It was designed to attract 
the attention of the outside world to what the French 
people were doing in Indo-China and to give the 
mother country more confidence in the ability of her 
colonies in the Far East. It was hoped that capital 
would be attracted by the Exposition and would be 
induced to come and establish manufactories and in- 
vest money in the various schemes set on foot by the 
government officials for the improvement of the coun- 
try. By an ornate gate which faces Boulevard Gam- 
betta entrance was gained to the Exposition grounds. 
No admittance fee was charged, the expectation being 
that the countries' exhibits would pay the expenses of 
the Exposition. 

The Palace Central is a fine building built to re- 
main after the Exposition was over, to be used as a 
museum and art gallery. It was the central building 
of the Fair and contained exhibits from different 
parts of the world. In one section two jewelry firms 
from Paris had a fine line of goods arranged in many 
pretty designs, and in one end of the building was an 
exhibit of the work done in the public schools of 
Hanoi, consisting mostly of drawing and fancy nee- 
dlework. Near the center was a collection of cabinets, 
tables, chairs and other articles, made from blackwood 
and inlaid with mother of pearl. This collection was 
sent with the exhibit of Tonkin to Paris in 1900 and 
it attracted much attention. In another section was 



226 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

a small exhibit from Korea composed of a collection 
of hats, of which no other country has so many differ- 
ent styles, worn by the peasantry and the government 
officials. The collection consisted of the more com- 
mon kind of hats and was not tastefully arranged. 
One of the most curious exhibits was a collection of 
jewelry worn by a tribe which inhabits the mountain 
regions near Langson. These people are neither An- 
namese nor Chinese but a distinct tribe by themselves. 
The other buildings were attractively grouped. 

China and Japan occupied two large buildings and 
their exhibits were the largest on the ground; but 
man)?- of the things were never unpacked for the at- 
tendance was so small. In a long building to the north 
of the Palace Central was the exhibit of France and 
her colonies. France of course was well represented 
and her exhibit was the most tastefully arranged of 
any at the fair. The exhibit of Indo- China was small 
because so much of the country is unimproved and 
there is little manufacturing done. The most inter- 
esting things were sent by the King of Annam from 
his private collection, and consisted of some robes 
worn by the former kings, gorgeous in the extreme, 
and others worn at his own court on state occasions, 
quite as fanciful. Near this exhibit was the collection 
of gods and altar decorations which had been taken 
from the Buddhist temple. 

The Tonkin Coal Mining Company had a large ex- 
hibit from the coal fields of Hongay, arranged in 




The Palace Central, Hanoi 



HANOI, THE PARIS OF THE ORIENT 227 

pyramids that glistened like diamonds and resembled 
the anthracite found in Pennsylvania. It is of an 
excellent quality and the mines are said to be almost 
inexhaustible. This is the most extensive and the best 
paying business of Indo-China. The companies 
working these mines pay large dividends to the stock- 
holders and large quantities of the coal are sold to the 
neighboring countries. Tonkin has both iron and cop- 
per mines that yield an abundance of good ore but 
they have not been extensively worked. 

Near this was the exhibit of Siam, which consisted 
of the nation's flags and three huge elephants, one of 
the most attractive sights of the Exposition. Every 
afternoon the little Siamese coolies who had the ele- 
phants in charge would decorate them with some 
pretty canopied saddles and take them to the suburbs 
to feed on the tall grass and banana stalks of which 
they are very fond. Although an elephant moves 
along the road with a measured tread that appears to 
be slow and cumbersome, it is not so in reality, for 
when it is gathering food for itself it covers a great 
deal of ground in a short time and its appetite is soon 
satisfied. It pulls up the grass and banana stalks with 
its trunk, breaks off the roots by striking them against 
its fore leg extended for the purpose, and then, divid- 
ing the stalks into lengths to suit its mouth, rolls them 
up and devours them. 

The American flag was the largest on any of the 
buildings and it hung over a building near the en- 



228 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

trance gate. The first thought that came to my mind 
was, — " I wonder if there is any American food 
there ; " for I had been a long time from home and I 
was ravenous for American cooking. Entering the 
building I found it was only a tobacco exhibit from 
Manila, in charge of a Spaniard who said he simply 
loved America for he had been very prosperous ever 
since the United States had taken possession of 
the Philippines. 

Taking the Fair as a whole, it was nicely gotten up 
and an honor to those who projected it; but for some 
reason or other it failed to attract outsiders and in 
consequence it did not prove the great advertisement 
for Indo- China the projectors had hoped. 



CHAPTER TWENTY 

BACK TO CHINA 

ALTHOUGH I had gone to the hotel office the 
**■ night before my departure to pay my bill and 
had told the clerk I wanted rikshas the next morning 
in order to catch the six o'clock train for Haiphong, 
I found the request had been forgotten and that all 
the coolies around the hotel had overslept themselves; 
so, when I was ready to start there was not a riksha 
in sight. After considerable delay two were found, 
however, and I started at a lively pace for the station 
which was more than a mile from the hotel. It had 
rained the night before and the mud and water 
flew in every direction. A coolie ran on ahead to get 
my ticket and tell the train man to await my arrival, 
and though the conductor did so, for I was so nearly 
on time, I was covered with mud and water and not in 
a very happy frame of mind when the train pulled 
out of Hanoi. 

The native coaches were crowded with people on 
the way to market which is held every morning half 
way between Hanoi and Haiphong, and they brought 
into the train all kinds of produce to be sold there. 
There were a good many pigs, so fat they could hardly 
walk, with bamboo poles strapped to their backs for 

229 



230 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

a handle by which they were carried as one would 
carry a satchel, and much to my surprise they did not 
squeal for they seemed to be quite used to being 
handled in this way. 

The Annamese are a small people, averaging not 
over five feet three or four inches in height. The 
men are homely but some of the women would be 
good looking were it not for their black teeth and 
mouth, the result of chewing betel nut. Both the men 
and the women wear their hair long and roll it up in 
a knot high on their heads. They wear white cloth 
trousers with a long black glazed cotton gown over, 
them. They are not very intelligent but many of 
the men are very strong. 

Arriving at Haiphong, I found the ship for Hong- 
kong had not received its cargo in time and instead of 
sailing that evening it would not sail for two days. 
This was another disappointing delay for the weather 
was growing damp and chilly and I had to walk the 
streets to keep warm, for none of the hotels are heated. 
Although I had heard much about the size and the 
number of Haiphong's mosquitoes, I neither heard 
nor saw one all the time I was there. The Annamese 
room boy would tuck up the mosquito netting under 
the bed clothing, and when I pulled it out to let the 
air circulate he went through a lot of strange actions 
to show me how much I would suffer if the mosqui- 
toes got inside. He even measured their length on 
his fingers to give me some idea of how large they 



BACK TO CHINA 231 

were, but the cool damp weather had completely si- 
lenced them and I had no personal encounters with 
them at all. 

It was a most disagreeable trip on a French 
steamer, for the wind blew a gale and the rain poured 
all the way. Our landing in the fog and rain was dis- 
mal indeed, but the passengers did not seem to mind 
it, for they had all been so ill during the trip they were 
delighted to set foot again on terra firma. 

During the week of my stay in Hongkong the time 
passed very pleasantly, for I had friends who enter- 
tained me royally. It was my first Christmas there 
and we had two days of it. I once heard of a man 
called as a witness in a case who, on being questioned 
regarding the time when a certain event took place, 
replied that it was " the second day of Christmas." 
This answer caused considerable merriment in the 
court room, but if this man had been a witness in a 
case in Hongkong his answer would have been ac- 
cepted and understood, for they have a first and a sec- 
ond day of Christmas there and just as many New 
Year's days. During these holidays the banks, the 
steamship offices, the post office, the shops and all the 
places of business kept by Europeans are closed, and 
the town is given over to the Chinese who keep their 
shops open and stand about in the streets, which, in 
consequence, become almost impassable. 

The day the steamer sailed the sun rose bright and 
clear for the first time during my stay in Hongkong. 



232 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

There were three first class passengers besides myself, 
two of them wealthy Chinese tea merchants with gar- 
ments of the richest silk brocade, lined with Russian 
sable, their finger nails nearly three inches long and 
rolled up in the palms of their hands, to show that they 
belonged to the class of Chinese who are above labor. 
The Captain said they had made many trips with him 
and he treated them as though they were royal 
princes. They did not sit near me at the table, but I 
was glad that after the first meal they were seasick 
and so confined to their cabins until they reached their 
destination. The other passenger was an Englishman 
from Sumatra, who was traveling around the coast 
of China and trying to induce Chinamen to go to 
Sumatra to work on his tobacco plantations. I was 
told confidentially that he promised them good wages, 
but when he got them there he paid very little for 
their work and took care they never had a chance 
to return to their native country. Europeans have 
never been able to enslave the people of Sumatra as 
they have the Javanese, for they are a brave and war- 
like race, and the Dutch have never wholly subdued 
them during all the years they have been in possession 
of the Island. 

Just twenty-four hours after leaving Hongkong 
we arrived at Swatow. The boat stayed here all day 
for there was little cargo to take on, and the ship's 
comprador offered to show me over the town. The 
compradors are the commercial agents of the ships 




An Annamese Woman of Tonkin 



BACK TO CHINA 

and they are usually very well-to-do. As we were 
walking along the main street of the town we saw a 
commotion before the door of one of the houses and 
stopping to see what it was, the comprador said, most 
indifferently, " It is nothing at all but a mother trying 
to sell her baby. You can see this in almost every 
town in China every day in the week." 

Both the mother and the baby were well dressed in 
new clothes of the sort worn by the peasant classes, 
and the baby appeared to be eight or nine months old. 
The mother was very careful to assure the bystanders 
of the masculine gender of the child, and declared she 
was not trying to palm off on them anything so abso- 
lutely worthless as a girl baby. Asked why she wished 
to dispose of her infant she said over and over again, 
" No chow, no chow " ; which means nothing to eat. 
She followed me for many blocks around the streets 
trying to induce me to buy her baby, and it was evi- 
dent the child was drugged for, in her frantic efforts 
to dispose of it, she almost let it fall several times, 
but the child never even made an outcry nor opened its 
eyes. At first she asked thirty Mexican dollars; but 
the price kept falling until a few cents would have 
bought it. I was told by those who had lived among 
the Chinese for many years that they were guilty not 
only of selling their babies, but that almost every 
family, from the lowest to the highest, was also guilty 
of infanticide, and that many more girl babies than 
boy babies were killed, though in some cases both fared 



234 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

alike when the parents were too poor and the child 
prevented the mother from working. When the baby 
is born the parents pay no attention to it and it soon 
dies. The worst of it is they are not particular about 
burying the body for they often throw it into the back 
yard or on to the commons for the hogs and dogs to 
devour. 

Swatow is the place where all kinds of pewter ware 
is manufactured. It is very heavy to carry away but 
it is interesting to visit these shops and see the various 
articles made from this metal and the fine workman- 
ship the Chinese put on them. 

Some years ago a Baptist minister came to Swatow 
as a missionary from America and built the village 
known as the Missionary Settlement, situated on the 
mainland two miles from the Chinese town. It is 
said that when he first came here he went to the Ya- 
men of Swatow, the place where a Chinese official lives 
and carries on his official business, usually composed 
of several buildings surrounded by a high wall 
painted yellow, and asked the Yamen for land on 
which to build a mission. He pretended to think that 
the Yamen had given him the open space in front of 
his own dwelling, so when he commenced building 
there the Yamen had to stop him. He pretended to 
think then that the Yamen had said he could have 
the ground in front of the old Chinese fortifications, 
but here again he was stopped for his buildings would 
interfere with the maneuvers of the army. In order 



BACK TO CHINA 235 

to get rid of this troublesome individual the Yamen 
finally gave him the tract of land on which the village 
is built, and he was careful to get the whole thing in 
his own name, so it is all his own property. Much of 
the ground was swampy but he hired cheap Chinese 
labor and had it filled in, and he has turned out to be 
one of the shrewdest missionaries in China, for he 
now rents the property for $20,000 per annum to the 
missionaries who reside in the village. He built a 
church, but it is so small and insignficant, compared 
with the other buildings, it would never be seen unless 
pointed out ; and many have been there and have come 
away declaring there is no church. Such is not the 
case, however, for it is so overtopped by other build- 
ings it is difficult to find. 

After dinner we started again on our journey and 
about five o'clock the next morning arrived at Amoy. 
It was New Year's Day, bright and beautiful, not a 
cloud in the sky. At breakfast the Captain informed 
us he was allowed the two New Year's holidays and 
that he was going to spend them here for he was a 
member of the club and hoped to have a jolly time. 
Before we were through breakfast the American Con- 
sul, Mr. Fesler, came on board to see the Captain, 
and finding an American among the passengers, in- 
vited me to go on shore and spend the day with him 
and his wife. I found that both Mr. and Mrs. Fesler 
were born near my native town, Princeton, Illinois, 
and that we had many mutual friends there. This 



236 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

stimulated a friendly feeling for each other and I 
passed a very pleasant New Year's Day with them. 

Amoy is the shipping port for the many tea planta- 
tions situated in this part of China. It is said to be 
the filthiest town in China, but I could see no differ- 
ence between it and other Chinese towns, for they are 
all very dirty. It had been nearly destroyed by fire 
only a short time before and this gave it a very dilapi- 
dated appearance. The foreign population lives on 
the Island of Kulangsu, just opposite Amoy, a pretty 
Island, but very rocky and hilly. In some parts the 
hills rise two or three hundred feet above the sea and 
all the foreign consuls reside there. 

On the highest hill of the Island stands a large brick 
residence surrounded by several small ones known as 
the Talmage Mission. It was founded by a brother 
of the Reverend De Witt Talmage more than twenty- 
five years ago, and after his death the work was con- 
tinued by his widow and two daughters by his first 
wife, who had grown old in the missionary service. 
They were said to be very exclusive and hard to get 
acquainted with, but very faithful in their mission 
work. 

The French, English and German consuls live in 
fine residences, and the club house is a very good 
building for so small a place. It contains quite a 
large library with billiard and card rooms and a hall 
where dances and receptions are held. There was con- 
siderable strife in this community of a hundred or 



BACK TO CHINA 237 

more foreigners over the subject of which of the con- 
suls' wives should be its social leader, yet in spite of 
this difference, they seemed to enjoy themselves 
greatly, for the ladies told me they had so many en- 
gagements it was almost impossible to attend them 
all. 

I had been so agreeably entertained I was sorry 
when the signal sounded from the steamer for all to 
come on board for it was about to sail. The Min is 
the prettiest river in China, with its green hills on 
either side, some of them covered with a rich soil and 
cultivated to the top. On either side of the entrance 
are Chinese forts which have a very picturesque ap- 
pearance, especially from the deck of the steamer, 
but they are said to be of little use. Owing to the 
many sandbars in the river large steamers cannot go 
farther than Pagoda Anchorage, nine miles from 
Foochow, where a small steam launch meets the 
steamers and takes the passengers and their baggage 
to the city. This launch often runs into the sandbars 
and has to wait four or five hours until the tide rises 
high enough to float it off. 

When we arrived at Foochow it was pitch dark and 
none of us knew the way to the hotel. After some 
delay we got a coolie to show us the right road but 
we found the hotel was nothing more than a small 
boarding house over a store, and when we arrived 
there every room was taken. After considerable 
coaxing, however, the proprietor gave me a small 



238 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

hall bed-room that was hardly large enough to turn 
round in. The gentlemen fared worse than I for 
they were assigned to mattresses on the floor of the 
dining room, with the promise of rooms the next day 
when some of the passengers would leave on the 
steamer. 

Foochow is quite hilly and the only way of getting 
about is by means of sedan chairs or on horseback. 
It is rather a pretty place, though there is not much 
to see beyond a few pagodas some distance from the 
town. It has always been famous for its lacquer work, 
done by the Chinese and considered superior to the 
Japanese variety. All I saw was finely done and very 
beautiful; but it was impossible to get a piece for it 
is always engaged beforehand. 

It is not easy to get into or out of Foochow, for the 
steamship offices know nothing about the sailing time 
of the ships at Pagoda Anchorage, which do not leave 
until they get a cargo, whenever that may be. So, 
when the passengers hear there is a steamer at the 
Anchorage bound their way, they have the launch 
take them down there and they go on board to wait 
until it sails. It was only by the merest chance I 
learned there was a steamer bound for Shanghai, and 
I lost no time in getting to it. 

When the boat came in sight the only thing I could 
see was its white sides and its mast, towering above 
thirty or forty junks unloading around it, and I was 
curious to know how the launch could get near enough 





A Chinese Woman of the Better Class 



BACK TO CHINA 

for me to go on board. The Chinese pilot assured me 
he would manage that all right but it proved a fearful 
undertaking, for there were no less than five junks to 
be crossed. The launch came up to the top of the 
first one and we got into it quite easily; but the next 
was nearly empty, and it was necessary to pile bags of 
rice high enough for me to cross it to the third. Be- 
sides they were so far apart that planks were needed 
from one to the other, and if the boat moved or rocked 
I stood a chance of being thrown into the water below. 
When the ship was reached there was no getting near 
the ladder and I had to climb over the railing and slide 
down the other side. The coolies brought my baggage 
after me, throwing it from one boat to the other, and 
I was sure from the noise it made in falling that it 
would be broken in pieces, and I was greatly relieved 
when it took its last somersault and landed on the 
deck of the steamer very much the worse for its trip. 

The boat was one of the China Merchant steamers 
on which it is sometimes difficult to procure passage, 
for they belong to a Chinese company and often the 
first cass cabins are all taken by a mandarin, or 
Chinese official, for himself and his wives. The Cap- 
tain told us this had been the case on a former trip 
when the passengers were obliged to go back and wait 
for the next boat. 

The officers of this line are English and Scotch, 
and we were fortunate in having only two Chinese for 
first class passengers, who chose to eat with the Chinese 



240 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

head steward; so there was only one first class pas- 
senger besides myself at the table, a Canadian em- 
ployed by an American insurance company with 
headquarters at Shanghai. He said that in the space 
of six months he had made $6000 in gold above all 
expenses, by insuring Chinamen, who liked the paid 
up policies, he said, because they provided a place to 
secrete their money so that their families and the gov- 
ernment could not get hold of it, besides obviating the 
necessity of paying taxes and securing a future 
income. 

After a rather tempestuous voyage I landed in 
Shanghai January 7th, 1903. On the way out I had 
sailed from this place October 7th, 1902, three months 
to the day from the time I had left this city, though 
I had not arranged to do so. A great change had 
taken place in the climate and appearance of Shanghai 
in the short time I had been absent, for when I left 
in October the weather was perfect, with warm sunny 
days and bright moonlight nights ; but now the leaves 
had fallen from the trees, the flowers along the Bund 
were brown and dry, the little park looked forlorn 
and deserted, and everyone was dressed in thick, win- 
ter clothing. Shanghai is not a winter resort; some- 
times it is cold enough for a light snowfall, and 
during December and January there are usually very 
heavy rainfalls. 

The morning I again sailed was bright and clear. 
The air was crisp and cold and one drew one's wraps 



BACK TO CHINA 241 

close to be comfortable. The brightness of the morn- 
ing, however, had the effect of making everyone 
cheerful and there were none of those solemn counte- 
nances one sees when people are going on long jour- 
neys. When the signal came for " all ashore that's 
going ashore," there was nothing but smiling faces, 
and we all went on the upper deck of the launch to 
wave good-by and see Shanghai, the Queen of the 
East, pass gradually out of sight. 

Owing to the shallowness of the Hwang-pu river 
and the sandbars at its mouth, none of the large 
steamers go up to Shanghai but anchor off Woo-sung. 
It took the tender two hours of hard steaming to get 
down there, where we found awaiting our arrival, the 
Empress of China, one of the steamers of the Em- 
press line owned by the Canadian Pacific Railroad 
Company. It seemed almost a mountain in size, as I 
walked up the long ladder to its upper deck after 
traveling on fifteen small coast steamers, and it was 
the third largest steamer I had traveled on in these 
waters, and the eighteenth since leaving America. 

The next day was Sunday and the stewardess asked 
in the morning if I proposed to attend church. I said 
I certainly should if the Captain was to conduct the 
service, for I thought it the duty of every passenger 
to show this respect to the commander. It is one of 
the rules on all passenger ships belonging to Great 
Britain and her colonies that the captain must read 
the Church of England service on Sunday morning. 



242 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

I have attended these services the world over, but I 
never heard a captain read the services as well as 
Captain Archibald of the Empress of China. I 
am sure that anyone who had not known he was a 
captain would have thought him a regularly ordained 
minister of the Church of England, and no ordinary 
one at that. 

Another thing in connection with this Sunday serv- 
ice, and one which I had never seen on any other 
English ship, was that all the crew not on duty at- 
tended church in their smartest clothes. The sailors 
marched in like a lot of well-drilled soldiers, dropped 
upon their knees as they entered, and looked neither 
to the right nor the left, but paid the strictest atten- 
tion to the service. I soon discovered that everything 
on board was managed with as little friction and with 
about the same precision as the machinery which pro- 
pelled it, for the captain allowed no discordant ele- 
ments to exist among the crew. If they could not 
agree with one another they had to go; and his firm, 
quiet way made them all stand in respectful awe of 
him, for they never knew just which one of them 
might be left at Vancouver. 

The table was excellent; nearly all the food was 
from America and nicely cooked and served. One 
evening at dinner the Captain said, " Miss Miller, you 
have visited so many different countries, will you 
please tell me which one in all the world you like the 
best? " 




Happy Valley, Hong Kong 



BACK TO CHINA 243 

" Yes, Captain," I replied, " that is very easy and 
I will give it to you in verse: " and I proceeded to 
repeat the following stanzas from a song first sung 
by a clown in " Yankee Robinson's Circus." It was 
the first song I had ever learned to sing, taught me by 
my father, who greatly admired its sentiment : 

" Of all the mighty nations 

In the east or in the west 
The glorious Yankee nation 
Is the greatest and the best. 
We have room for all creation, 

Our banner is unfurled, 

Here's a general invitation 

To the people of the world. 

So come along, come along, 
Make no delay, 
Come from every nation 
And come from every way. 
Our lands they are broad, 
Now don't you be alarmed, 
For Uncle Sam is rich enough 
To give us all a farm." 

At its conclusion the Captain asked me which of 
the oriental nations I liked the best, and I replied, of 
course, Japan, adding that if it advanced in the 
future as it had in the past, it would not be long be- 
fore it would be the equal, if not the superior, of any 
nation on the globe. 



JAPAN 



CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 

"THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN" 

T^ OR the eighth time I found myself crossing the 
Yellow Sea, but it was the first time I had ever 
enjoyed the trip, for I had always found it so rough 
and disagreeable. We were two days and a half cross- 
ing from China to Nippon, as the Japanese call their 
country, which, in some unaccountable way, the 
Chinese and other foreigners have twisted into 
"Japan." 

The beauty of Nagasaki's harbor lies in the green 
hills around it, covered to the top with large camphor 
trees centuries old. These hills almost surround the 
harbor, for the opening between, where the ships 
enter, is less than half a mile across. Here and there 
on the sides of the hills are dwellings built on terraces, 
and on their summits little villages, temples and tea 
houses that look very charming nestling among the 
green foliage of the trees. This is the principal coal- 
ing station in the Far East and boats from all climes 
and nations come here for coal. The mine from which 
the coal is obtained is situated on the Island of Taka- 
shima, not far from the entrance to the harbor and so 
near the sea that the barges load at its entrance. 

As we came alongside the landing one of the pas- 
sengers called attention to the " kurumas " waiting 

247 



248 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

for us. This name is used in Japan mostly by new- 
comers and by people who wish to appear elegant 
and learned. It is another name for the little gig-like 
vehicle known the world over as the jinrikisha, a con- 
veyance invented by an American living in Japan, 
who, having lost the power of locomotion through ill- 
ness, invented it as a means of getting about. In 
time it became popular and it is now used in the East 
as far as India. 

Nagasaki's fine situation on the southwest coast of 
Japan has given it, like the harbor, a reputation the 
world over for its beauty. The hotel and steamship 
offices are situated along the Bund, a pretty, wide 
street in front of the harbor, and because of the great 
number of strangers who visit this city each year, as 
more ships call here than at any other seaport in the 
country, its curio shops are in a flourishing condition. 
The porcelain bazars are very numerous and the blue 
wares, known as Imari and Deshima, are the prin- 
cipal varieties displayed in them. These porcelains 
are very popular and quantities are shipped each year. 
The potteries where they are manufactured are situ- 
ated near Nagasaki and date back to the time when 
the art was first introduced into the country from 
Korea and China, many centuries ago. 

Nagasaki's fish market is very extensive but it is 
not necessary to visit it for it visits you, or rather, the 
odor does; it permeates the harbor, the city and the 
surrounding country. I read in a Japanese news- 



"THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN" 249 

paper that there are three hundred varieties of fish 
found on the coast of Japan, and it is said that every 
one of them may be found in Nagasaki's fish market. 
On account of their odoriferous character, however, I 
did not take pains to verify either statement. 

By a rather steep road at the back of the town 
one reaches the public park belonging to O-Suwo 
temple ; a pretty place with a fine view of the city and 
the harbor. When General Grant came to Nagasaki 
it was near the top of the hill in this park that he and 
Mrs. Grant planted trees to commemorate their visit. 
The trees were well taken care of, but after a few 
years one of them died, another being planted in its 
place, and both are now in a flourishing condition. 
A rough stone stands between the trees, inscribed with 
the date of the planting and the monogram of the 
General. At a tea house, also in this park, the Gov- 
ernor of Nagasaki gave a Japanese dinner in their 
honor, a splendid affair, interspersed with different 
kinds of entertainments including geisha dancers, 
tumblers, jugglers and theatrical performances. 

Nagasaki was the first port opened to foreigners 
and it has never been wholly closed to them, for when 
the United States sent Commodore Perry to Japan in 
1853, to open her ports to foreign nations, the Chinese 
were allowed to enter the country at Nagasaki and a 
few Protestant Dutch were permitted to live on the 
little island of Deshima in the harbor of Nagasaki, 
where the porcelain bazars now are. 



250 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Nippon, according to geologists, is the last addi- 
tion to the world. It has something over 40,000,000 
inhabitants occupying a territory about the size of 
New York State. They are a very polite and cheery 
people, who have a way of getting along that 
astonishes a foreigner. There are no almshouses in 
the country and not many beggars for the people are 
very industrious, economical and wonderfully self- 
reliant, and this may account for the small number of 
dependent people. The working classes receive very 
low wages, — from eight to thirty cents a day in our 
money, — but they manage to save some of it and 
nearly all of them have something laid by for future 
use. 

For the third time I crossed the Inland Sea after 
leaving Nagasaki and found the trip monotonous; 
for, though the scenery is very pretty and one always 
enjoys the smooth waters and peaceful calm that pre- 
vail upon this sea, there is a great sameness to it. 

At nine in the evening we entered the harbor before 
Kobe and Hiogo, but because of the darkness and the 
fog, the whistle from the steamers brought no 
launches for the passengers and we had to stay on 
board until morning. At the landing was the usual 
customs house, which I found to be a knotty proposi- 
tion, for almost everything brought into Japan at 
that time was dutiable. When I complained of the 
insolence of the customs house officers and their 
method of tearing things open, they sarcastically re- 



"THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN" 251 

marked that I should not complain, as they had only 
adopted the methods of the United States in that 
respect; and seeing that I was an American and not 
used to " mean customs houses " they would let me 
off on payment of six yen duty. After I had gath- 
ered my baggage together, which was no little trouble, 
they all three laughed and asked if I did not think 
I had gotten off cheap. These fellows had forgotten 
the politeness for which their country is so famous. 

Kobe in January is far from being pleasant, and 
its finely sheltered position at the head of the Inland 
Sea does not seem to render it less subject to the raw 
winds than the less favored towns, for nearly every 
day there is a heavy downpour of rain. Hiogo and 
Kobe are so situated it is impossible to find the divid- 
ing line between them. The former is the ancient 
city, inhabited by native people, and the latter was 
nothing but a sandy waste prior to 1868, though now 
it is a large, modern city. The population of both 
these towns, when they were opened to foreign trade 
thirty-five years ago, was only 10,000, but now the 
two cities have a population of 217,000. Kobe is an 
important commercial city and the seaport for Osaka 
and Kioto. 

At Hiogo I saw the funeral of one of the richest 
tea merchants in Japan, a very imposing spectacle. 
The coffin was a square wooden box covered with 
white silk and festooned with white and tinsel cords. 
It was borne on the shoulders of uniformed coolies 



252 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

by means of a bamboo pole attached to it, and looked 
very small for an adult corpse even in a sitting pos- 
ture. In front of the coffin walked twelve Buddhist 
priests in gorgeous robes, and just behind it followed 
a cage of white doves. Then came the food offerings 
for the dead and a half dozen or more small evergreen 
trees and bouquets of flowers carried by coolies, — the 
offerings from the friends of the dead, — and last of 
all came a long line of rikshas filled with hired mourn- 
ers who were a lot of women dressed in white, their 
faces painted to look ghastly. There were many 
white and red banners borne along the line. At the 
cemetery the priests droned prayers for the dead and 
the mourners wailed dolefully. One by one the whole 
assembly passed before the coffin, bowing low, and 
laid a small branch of evergreen on it. The coffin 
was then taken in charge by those who were to cremate 
the body, for the dead merchant was a Buddhist. 

A native guide is indispensable in traveling through 
Japan, and they may be had by applying to the 
Kalyusha, or Licensed Guide Association. These 
guides relieve one of every care and worry incident 
to travel. They are always on time, willing and ready 
to serve their employer. They telegraph ahead for 
your hotel accommodations and when you arrive 
coolies are waiting to take care of your baggage. 
They buy your railroad tickets and pay all your bills 
for you. Each member of the Association carries a 
printed list of the rules and regulations of the society, 



"THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN" 253 

which they are careful to live up to, and they are 
pledged to serve those who hire them to the best of 
their ability and to charge no more than the estab- 
lished fee which is now two yen fifty, equal to $1.25 
per day in our money. 

Some of these guides are poor interpreters, but I 
have been very fortunate in this respect, for, on my 
first visit to Japan, I had Kobe Tagima for a guide, 
who was appointed by the Mikado to take General 
Grant through the country, as well as the King of 
Siam. He was very intelligent and spoke English 
fluently. On my next visit I had Oto, of Isabel Bird 
fame, and now I have Fujisawa for a guide. He is 
not good looking, for Japanese men are extremely 
homely and foreign clothes do not have the effect of 
improving their looks. On the contrary, they seem 
to bring out all their defects, and they have no taste 
in selecting them or in wearing them either. I soon 
discovered, however, that Fujisawa was a good guide, 
for he could read, write and speak English well, hav- 
ing been six years in America. He had learned to 
lift his hat in foreign style and he would apologize 
for the low bowing of the Japanese and their exces- 
sive politeness. 

Bowing takes the place of handshaking in Japan. 
When one is introduced to a Japanese lady or gentle- 
man, they place their hands upon their knees and 
bow two or three times very low, the men sucking 
their breath between their teeth, with a loud, hissing 



254 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

sound, which, though not very pleasant to listen to, is 
a token of great respect. According to Griffis' His- 
tory of Japan, the sucking of the breath between the 
teeth originated among the Samurai, who were the 
military classes and ranked next to the Daimios, the 
vassals of the Shoguns who ruled Japan. 

It so happened just before leaving Kobe that I re- 
ceived an invitation to visit a rich merchant's house 
for the purpose of seeing his garden. The whole 
family met me at the door, the three servants fall- 
ing upon their knees, their foreheads touching the 
floor, while the gentleman and his wife stood just be- 
hind them, the wife a little back of the husband. 
Each made three low bows, and as soon as the cover- 
ings I had brought with me were drawn over my 
shoes ( for all shoes must be removed or covered be- 
fore entering a Japanese house), I proceeded to fol- 
low my hosts within. The servants brought silken 
cushions for us to sit upon and I tried to drop on 
my knees and sit on my heels as the Japanese do, but 
I found it a difficult matter. However, I was finally 
seated, tailor fashion, when my hosts gave three more 
bows. Then tea and sweets were served and each 
servant as she passed bowed three times. 

After this we proceeded to visit the garden which 
contained over five hundred plants and trees though 
they all occupied a space not over eighty feet square. 
It was laid out like a park and looked like a doll's para- 
dise, with tiny trees not over six or seven inches in 




The Greeting 




Rikisha Riding 



"THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN" 255 

height growing on the sides of miniature mountains 
and spread out like forest trees. Some of them were 
sixty years old, and there were all kinds of plants 
blooming in beds, many of them not over three inches 
in height. Orange trees six inches in height were so 
loaded with fruit it seemed as if their limbs must 
break ; then there were maple trees of about the same 
height with all the autumn tints. On one of the 
islands stood a Shinto temple on a piece of ground 
not larger than an ordinary dinner napkin, with water- 
falls, moss-grown rocks, and ponds of gold fish. This 
garden was different from most of the Japanese gar- 
dens, few of which have blooming plants in them. 
The Japanese are wonderful landscape gardeners and 
their greatest talent is that of producing plants and 
trees in miniature. 

On our way back to the hotel we stopped to see a 
Japanese school. The Japanese use the Chinese char- 
acters in printing their language which they read in a 
singing way, and it is very amusing to visit a school 
and hear the pupils singing their lesson. The Chinese 
letters are very difficult to learn, for one must have 
a knowledge of from four to eight thousand char- 
acters for ordinary use, and for the classics thirty 
thousand or more. The Japanese print their alpha- 
bet, which contains forty-eight letters, besides the 
Chinese characters, for the benefit of the illiterate, 
and the Japanese language, like the Chinese, though 
rich in words, contains none for cursing or swear- 



256 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

ing, and they have no knowledge whatever of pro- 
fanity. 

Osaka, the Chicago of Japan, as it has been dubbed 
on account of the progressive spirit of its people, 
never before appeared so bustling. The hotel was 
full of people, who, I learned, were exhibitors waiting 
for the National Industrial Exposition to be com- 
pleted, which for some unforeseen reason had been 
delayed. I, too, was disappointed, for I had hoped 
to see the Fair, and I was obliged to content myself 
with the kindness and overwhelming politeness of Mr. 
Oda, his Imperial Japanese Majesty's Commissioner, 
who presented me with a permit to visit the buildings 
and grounds. These buildings were all built of staff 
after foreign models. Mr. Oda wanted to know what 
I thought of it, and I told him that, as a whole, it 
was very artistically arranged, but that I would have 
enjoyed it more had it been purely Japanese and not 
copied from the Paris Exposition. 

No large vessels call at Osaka, on account of the 
shallow water and sandbars near the mouth of the 
Yodogawa river which empties into Osaka Bay, so 
its various commodities are loaded into boats and sent 
twenty miles across the bay to Hiogo and Kobe, its 
seaport. Two branches of this river run through the 
city, intersected by innumerable canals spanned by 
hundreds of bridges. 

Osaka is a very old city and the southern capital 
of Japan. Some of its ancient landmarks still re- 



"THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN" 257 

main, the greatest among them being the castle built 
in 1583, by Hideryoshi, whose enterprising spirit is 
said to have paved the way for Osaka's commercial 
greatness, for it was during his reign that most of the 
canals were dug. Just outside the castle walls is the 
arsenal, which is very large and was running to its 
fullest capacity and over hours. When I asked what 
this meant, my only answer was a significant laugh, 
which I interpreted to mean that war was expected 
in the near future. 

The Imperial Mint is the pride of Osaka. It is 
large and well equipped with modern machinery and 
employs both men and women who attend the machin- 
ery in the different departments. Here are manu- 
factured the gold, silver, nickel and copper coins of 
the country, but the paper currency is manufactured 
at Tokio in an establishment called the Insatsu 
Kyoku, an interesting place to visit. 

Mioksen of Osaka is the best Satsuma decorator 
in Japan, or, for that matter, in the world. I once 
visited his place of business with a party of twelve, 
when he sent to his kura (fireproof warehouse) and 
brought all the stock he had on hand. It did not 
amount to three dozen pieces ; and when we asked him 
why he did not enlarge his business and make more 
out of his reputation, he replied that if he taught his 
art to others they would set up for themselves and 
both his business and reputation would be ruined, 



v CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 

JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND ART 

"D ABIES, babies, where do they all come from! one 
*-* exclaims when visiting Japan, for they never 
seem to grow fewer, and you are willing to wager 
that the last town you visited had twice as many as 
any of the others, for you hardly see a woman 
without a baby tied on her back, while many of the 
men and nearly all the children are burdened in the 
same way, some of the children being not much larger 
than the babes they carry. 

This method of carrying babies takes the place of 
crib and perambulator until the child is old enough 
to walk. They are fastened to the back by a long 
strip of cloth wound several times around them and 
then brought around the waist of the person carrying 
the child and tied in front. These babies are dressed 
in kimonos, just like their elders, only of a much more 
gorgeous hue. They are odd little bundles of human- 
ity but they are cunning and quite captivating, 
though some of them are badly afflicted with sore eyes 
and heads. One in a measure overlooks this, for they 
bear it so patiently, and they are wonderfully good 
and scarcely ever cry. If they do, a few extra jolts 

258 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND ART 259 

from their carrier soothes them, and they resume the 
even tenor of their way, gazing contentedly around 
at the street scenes or sleeping soundly with their 
heads rolling backward, or from side to side, until it 
seems as if their little necks would break. 

All babies have their heads shaved; the boys until 
they are three years old, when little tufts of hair are 
permitted to grow over each ear and at the nape of 
the neck. Some have little bare spots at the crown 
with a fringe of hair around it. 

The Japanese cannot be called a dirty people, for 
they bathe frequently in water hot enough to cook 
them, the temperature being usually from 100° to 
120° Fahrenheit. Their children, however, are often 
sadly neglected along these lines, for some of them 
have distressingly dirty faces; but if at times this 
gives one a slight feeling of nausea, they are paragons 
just the same, for you never see a disobedient or 
quarrelsome child and they all have the dignity and 
bearing of their elders. 

Japanese do not kiss and caress their children as we 
do; in fact, kissing is unknown. Their love is un- 
demonstrative, but quite as deep as ours, for no people 
in the world love their children more than they do; 
they often spend hours playing with them, they buy 
them innumerable toys and take them on picnic ex- 
cursions and never scold or whip them. 

The Japanese marry from the ages of sixteen to 
nineteen, and there seems to be a Jack for every Jill 



260 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

in Japan, for one seldom sees an old maid or bachelor. 
Young unmarried men and women do not associate 
with each other; they are separated when children and 
grow up apart, and they are never allowed to get ac- 
quainted, for it is considered vulgar, a thing not to 
be thought of, for young people to fall in love, or have 
any regard for each other before they are married. 
So, when a young man arrives at the marriageable 
age, he goes to some one of his married friends and 
asks him if he and some other married friend they 
decide upon will be " go-betweens " for him in the 
selection of a young woman from among their ac- 
quaintances, who they believe will make him a good 
wife. 

These friends, or " go-betweens," are willing to 
shoulder the responsibility of the whole affair and 
regard it as an honor to be able to serve a friend 
in this capacity. They take a parental interest in the 
pair after they are married and try to make their 
wedded life a happy and prosperous one ; and in case 
they become divorced, the " go-betweens " always 
take an active part in the proceedings. After the 
selection has been made the " go-betweens " speak to 
the parents of the young woman about the suit of their 
friend, and if they do not object to him a party is 
arranged, usually at the house of one of the " go- 
betweens," and here the young couple meet and have 
a chance to judge for themselves whether they are 
pleased with each other. If there is no dissatisfaction 




"3 



55 

Oh 










o 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND ART 261 

on the part of either after this meeting, the parents 
of the young man send a present to the young woman 
and her parents send a present to the young man. 
This takes the place of an engagement, and the " go- 
betweens " then set a date for the wedding and attend 
to all the arrangements for it. 

On the day of the wedding the bride's trousseau and 
a certain number of pieces of household furniture 
which each bride must have, three or four barrels of 
" sake," and a lot of presents for the parents of the 
groom, are sent by the bride's parents to the groom's 
father's house. Along about dark, the bride, dressed 
in white with a long veil enveloping her and accom- 
panied by her parents and the " go-betweens," is 
carried to the bridegroom's father's house where the 
wedding ceremony takes place. 

This ceremony is nothing more than drinking 
" sake " (wine) according to a long-established usage, 
and there is no one present but the bride and bride- 
groom, the bridesmaids and the " go-betweens." 
When the bride is brought into the room by the 
bridesmaids, the groom, who is seated on the floor, 
does not arise but keeps his eyes fixed on the floor 
until the bride takes her seat beside him, with the 
bridesmaids and " go-betweens " on either side of 
the bridal couple. A small table is then brought in 
and placed before the bride, and a tray is set upon it 
bearing three small cups of different sizes. The 
bridesmaids fill the smallest cup with " sake " and 



262 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

hand it to the bride, who takes three sips from it 
and hands it to the groom, who does the same. The 
other two cups are filled and emptied in the same way 
and the bride and groom then retire to take off their 
wedding garments and put on reception dresses. 
The bride, however, keeps on her long white veil, for 
this will be her burial robe some day. The brides- 
maids then raise a two-spouted tankard and present it 
to the lips of the bride and the bridegroom, who drink 
from it alternately until it is emptied, a ceremony 
symbolic of tasting together the joys and sorrows of 
wedded life. This is the final ceremony and the bride 
and groom join the friends and relatives who have 
assembled in an adjoining room and congratulations, 
sake-drinking and feasting are kept up until a late 
hour. 

As soon as possible after the wedding the marriage 
is registered at the government registration office, the 
only action required in Japan to make it legal. On 
the third day after the wedding the bride and the 
groom make a visit to the parents of the bride, and 
a large party is given to which all the friends and rela- 
tives of the two families are invited. These festivities 
are given in honor of the bride's departure from her 
father's house, for, from this time forward, she 
separates herself from her own family and becomes 
as much a part of her husband's family as if she had 
never known any other. A man never marries for 
money- in Japan, and it is seldom a wife brings her 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND ART 263 

husband riches, for she cannot inherit any of her 
father's property, and it is not often that a father 
gives his daughter a dower on her marriage, though 
he may do so if he wishes, but it is not expected of 
him. As a rule, the property is given to the sons. 

Woman's rank in the social scale is greatly in- 
ferior to that of the men. From her babyhood she is 
taught to be submissive and to respect and obey the 
head of the house, be it a father, a husband, a brother 
or a son. She is taught that she must marry and this 
usually takes place when she is sixteen or seventeen 
years old. From this time on she is nothing more 
than a slave for her husband, who treats her with less 
consideration than he would a servant, but she never 
complains of her inferior position, nor the hardness 
of her lot; she is sweet, gentle and obedient under 
all the trials she has to bear. 

If extreme sensitiveness on the part of the Japanese 
is any indication that they are beginning to realize 
that there should be a reform in the evils of social 
life in Japan, one would think the time is not far 
distant when they would be corrected ; for if anything 
is said or written over here, either by a foreigner or a 
native, derogatory to the position of woman, the 
Japanese know no bound to their rage, though they 
well know this is one of their weak points and one 
they are powerless to defend, and that it is a blot on 
their progressive spirit and their higher civilization. 

Greater enlightenment does not have the effect of 



264 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

diminishing the number of divorces in Japan, but 
rather of increasing them. Even among the higher 
classes there are more than there used to be, but of 
course there are fewer here on account of the scandal 
and disgrace usually connected with proceedings of 
this kind. Among the lower classes, where there are 
no restraining influences, men are often married and 
divorced seven or eight times and women two or three 
times. Until the new code was passed the marriage 
tie could be severed at the will of either party, a simple 
change in the registration being all that was neces- 
sary. While the new code will have to be greatly 
amended before it will have the effect of improving 
the condition of marriage and divorce to any appre- 
ciable extent, there has been some falling off in the 
number of divorces among the lower classes since it 
was promulgated. It seems a little coercion goes a 
long way in Japan. 

Divorces can now be had as formerly, by mutual 
agreement or through the courts, and this is some 
improvement over the old way, for if the parties fail 
to agree, or if one does not wish to be divorced, they 
can then arrange a judiciary divorce. The law still 
gives the children to the father, and this is one of the 
most deplorable things about divorce in Japan. 
Sometimes it is possible for a woman to arrange with 
her husband for the custody of her children, but it is 
seldom she is able to support them, and a man in 
Japan cannot be made to support his children if they 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND ART 265 

are taken away from him, or help his divorced wife 
either; she must go back to her relatives and depend 
upon them for support. 

The Japanese have a topsy-turvy way of doing 
things, just the opposite to what we do. For in- 
stance, they build the roof of the house first upon the 
ground, then the other parts, raise the roof and put 
it together. Foot notes are put at the top of the 
page and locks are put in the jamb instead of on the 
door. They have a rather clever way of addressing 
a letter; the country is written first, then the state, 
next the street and number and the name last of all. 
They mount a horse from the right and a vehicle 
turns to the left instead of to the right as with us. 
Horses are hitched in their stalls tail first, napkins 
are made of paper and white is worn for mourning. 

A great change had taken place in Japan during 
the three years since I last visited it. Prices had 
advanced greatly, most of the large stores had adopted 
the one-price system, and the soroban, the Japanese 
counting board, was not so much used as heretofore. 
Railroad fares had advanced one sen, first class is now 
four sen a mile, second class three, and third class two. 
The yen is equal to fifty cents of our money and it is 
divided into a hundred sen; so a sen is a half cent of 
our money. 

Another innovation was porters in blue uniforms 
on the railroad trains, and such a nuisance they were. 
They fairly drove me distracted, for they wanted to 



266 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

brush me off every five minutes, because they were 
under the impression that this was the way our porters 
did. I tried to explain to them what we expected of 
a, porter, but they would not listen to me, for some 
Japanese, who had traveled in America, had given 
them instructions and they wanted me to understand 
that Japanese were not behind the world even in the 
matter of brushing railroad passengers' clothes. 

Kioto is the ancient capital and here the Mikado 
lived until the Restoration, when he moved to Tokio. 
These cities are now designated as the eastern and 
western capitals. The Japanese still love the more 
ancient capital and many of them regret that the 
Emperor has permanently taken up his residence at 
Tokio. The great palace where he lived has lost none 
of its sacredness in their estimation because of his 
absence, and it is surprising to see the reverential air 
they assume when they enter it, for they believe that 
all of their emperors were of divine origin. 

The palace is situated in a large park, and none of 
the gates are open now except the gate of the 
" August Kitchen " ; and here I entered, to be shown 
through the building by two solemn-faced Japs, who 
wore pleated trousers and silk kimonos, the ancient 
court dress. In the great audience room, or The Cool 
and Pure Hall, is a new throne, which the Emperor 
, used after the Restoration. A white silk canopy 
covers the throne which is a red lacquered chair, with 
a back shaped like a torii. A lacquered stool stood 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND ART 267 

on either side for the sacred sword and seal, the in- 
signia of the Emperor, and in another room was a 
white silk tent that covered the old throne, which is 
now in the museum at Tokio. When the Emperor 
held his audiences he sat inside the tent on a matting 
throne, with the curtains drawn around, and nothing 
was seen of him ; only his voice being heard. In one 
of the corners of the room was about a yard square of 
cement floor, on which fresh earth was placed every 
morning, in order that the Emperor could worship his 
ancestors on earth without descending to the ground. 
There is no furniture in the palace nor is it heated. 
The Mikados warmed themselves over a few coals in 
a hibachi or fire-box, just as the peasants do now. In 
the winter the palace is cold and dreary looking, and 
in the summer it is hot and dreary looking — there is 
not a cozy nook or corner about it. 

Less than a mile from the palace is Nijo castle, 
built by the feudal lords, who lived there in great 
splendor. It is a blaze of magnificence from floor to 
ceiling for neither labor nor money was spared in its 
decorations. The screens were covered with gold and 
painted by the old artists in most fantastic design ; and 
the same richness of decoration is carried out in all 
the rooms throughout the castle. Only the inner part 
of the great fortress is perfect, much of the building 
having been destroyed by fire and earthquakes. 

Kioto is also the more interesting because it is less 
foreignized and the most Japanese of all the cities. 



268 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Weeks can be spent here it is so fascinating ; for if it 
it is not one thing it is another, and one never becomes 
satiated. The shops are especially enticing and you 
are apt to spend much of your time in them, for there 
is no end to the beautiful things they display, partic- 
ularly in embroideries of the most exquisite designs, 
— an art in which the Japanese excel. 

Nammikawa, the first cloisonne artist of the pres- 
ent time, has his workshop in Kioto, and the most 
beautiful bronzes in Japan can be bought there also. 
There are whole streets of porcelain bazaars and the 
largest silk stores in Japan, where one can find a 
splendid assortment of Kioto crepes and brocades 
for which the city is so famous, as well as all kinds of 
foreign silks, and there are shops filled with wonder- 
ful fans, ivory carvings, damosening, bamboo work 
and all kinds of curios. 

It would take a volume to describe the temples in 
and around Kioto, for they are almost innumerable. 
The new temple of the rich Monto Buddhist sect is 
the largest and grandest ; it was only completed a few 
years ago and cost a vast amount of money though 
much of the material used in its construction was 
donated. A small army of the best artists in the 
country worked for three years decorating the in- 
terior, which is rich in carvings, gold and lacquer 
work. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 

THE INTERIOR OF JAPAN 

F T was in Kioto, the first time I visited Japan, that 
■■■ I was invited to a Japanese dinner given in honor 
of Thomas Cook & Son's round-the-world parties, 
an English firm with headquarters in London and 
offices in nearly every town and city throughout the 
world. They were the first in the tourist business, 
and their service is a great boon to travelers. No one 
knows this better than I for I have traveled more 
miles with their tickets than any other woman. 

It was the first of these parties I had ever met. 
They were all delightful people, as jolly as could be, 
with nothing to do but enjoy themselves, for they 
were relieved of all the cares and responsibilities of 
travel by their able conductor. Among them was Dr. 
Warner, of corset fame, from New York City, who 
was traveling with his wife and daughter ; a Mr. Cal- 
lendar, also of New York, a retired millionaire who 
was collecting curios for a Southern college; Dr. 
Little of Glens Falls, New York, a scientist and nat- 
uralist, who had traveled all over the world with his 
patients ; a Mr. Van Curan of Newburg, New York, 
another retired millionaire ; a Reverend Dr. Miller of 
London, England, who had served his congregation 

269 



270 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

for twenty-five years, and who for his faithful service 
was sent around the world to enjoy a well-earned rest; 
a Mr. Bly of London, a young Oxford graduate, who 
was traveling around the world to add a finishing 
touch to his education; Baron Von Rubenskirk of 
Austria and Count Segery of Germany, who devoted 
their lives to traveling for recreation. 

The dinner was given in one of the largest tea 
houses in Kioto, which are all alike except that some 
are larger than others. We were met at the entrance 
by a number of nesans, or house servants, who took 
off our shoes and we followed them stockingfooted 
upstairs to a large room where the dinner was served. 
Our seats were red silk cushions laid on the floor, so 
arranged that the guests faced each other. Before 
each guest was a tabako bon holding a tiny hibachi 
with live coals in a cone of ashes, and a section of a 
bamboo stem for an ash receiver. Then came the tea 
and sweets which always precede a Japanese dinner; 
and next the nesans set in front of each guest an 
ozen, or table about five inches high, on which stood 
a covered China bowl and a long envelope containing 
a pair of chop-sticks. Our host opened his envelope 
and broke apart his chop-sticks, for they were only 
split half way down, to show they had never been used 
before, and then lifted the cover from his bowl, and 
this was the signal that the feast had commenced. 

It is not an easy matter for foreigners to use chop- 
sticks, for the art is not acquired in a few minutes. 



THE INTERIOR OF JAPAN 271 

Our host kindly gave us many pointers and showed 
us how he used his, but the more we tried the more 
they would wobble, bobble and cross and the food fell 
almost anywhere, but it was lots of fun trying to use 
them and we all enjoyed it hugely. 

A Japanese dinner is a long-drawn-out affair and 
it takes a great deal of patience and endurance to sit 
on one's knees or tailor fashion on the floor in stocking- 
feet for five hours, but this was a more elaborate 
dinner than usual and there were twelve courses in all. 
There were five kinds of cooked and raw fish eaten 
with soy, the Japanese sauce made from beans, four 
kinds of soup, three kinds of chicken, rice curry, lily 
bulbs, bamboo sprouts, egg plant with different kinds 
of vegetables cooked with them, and the last course 
was sponge cake with sweets and a tastefully ar- 
ranged basket of sweets as a souvenir. Hot sake was 
served with each course. This is the Japanese wine 
made from rice, and is drunk as healths, and you 
must rise during the dinner and drink the health of 
your host and each of the guests, lifting your little 
sake cup to your forehead in salutation each time, 
then emptying it in three sips. It is customary also 
to drink the health of each of the nesans or waitresses, 
who bow their heads to the floor in acknowledgment 
of the compliment. 

When several courses had been served three geishas 
entered, knelt on the mats and commenced to play the 
samisen, koto and tzuzumi or drum, and sing to the 



m NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

accompaniment, when presently six more geishas, the 
most famous professional dancers and singers in 
Kioto, entered. They all wore beautiful silk crepe 
kimonos and obis of the richest silver brocade, and 
waved exquisite fans of silver and gold most fanci- 
fully decorated. Their jet black hair was a tower 
of silky puffs with many fancy pins stuck through 
them, but their faces were expressionless, for they 
were covered with coat after coat of white paint. At 
the nape of their necks were three little diamond 
shaped patches, called "beauty patches," made by 
leaving their natural yellowish skin unpowdered. 
Often a narrow band is left along the forehead next 
the hair in the same way. They all had charming 
manners and between the courses they would sit 
around on the floor among the guests and smile, tell 
little stories and fill the sake cups. The dancers were 
quite pretty but there was a great sameness to them 
and after two or three we did not care for them. 

The musical training of these girls is a long and 
tedious one, but their musical accomplishments are 
only appreciated by the Japanese, for it is almost im- 
possible for foreigners to detect the slightest melody, 
time or tune in their playing on the samisen. The 
vocal part of their musical education consists in ac- 
quiring a peculiar, high squeal, which is the principal 
note in it, and to do this, according to Hearn, " in the 
coldest hour of the winter night she must ascend to 
the roof of her dwelling house and there play until 




A Japanese Tea House and Garden 




Geishas Dancing to Samisen Music 



THE INTERIOR OF JAPAN 273 

the blood oozes from her fingers and her voice dies in 
her throat. The desired result is an atrocious cold. 
After a period of hoarse whisperings her voice changes 
its tone and strengthens ; she is now ready to become 
a public singer and dancer." 

They commence their career young, at the age of 
thirteen or fourteen, and they never lack for engage- 
ments, for no Japanese entertainment, public or 
private, is considered complete without them. They 
are not all bad but their training is such it does not 
tend to keep them virtuous, as they associate only 
with men and they are taught only to make themselves 
fascinating and pleasing to this sex. There are more 
in Kioto than anywhere else, where they take part in 
the two great festivals, the Cherry Blossom and the 
Maple, which take place in the spring and fall. 

I once attended a Cherry Blossom festival, which 
commences in April and lasts three weeks. There 
were about one hundred geishas, eighty of whom were 
drummers and samisen players, and they all wore 
gorgeous kimonos. These girls never wear jewelry 
but their costumes often represent a small fortune. 
The musicians were arranged on either side of the 
theater and when the grand overture was played it 
sounded as if pandemonium had broken loose; it was 
simply ear splitting; but as I have said before, for- 
eigners do not appreciate Japanese music. 

The theater was brilliantly lighted with electricity, 
and the stage was made pretty by means of some 



274 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

mechanical arrangement behind the scenes which let 
down cherry boughs, laden with bloom, over the heads 
of the dancers so that they danced in a bower of 
flowers ; then maple boughs with all the autumn color- 
ing, were let down in the same way, all made of paper 
but quite as effective as if they had been real. At the 
top of the stage were a lot of twinkling lights that 
looked like stars. The dancing was a pantomimic 
play of the song of the Cherry Blossoms, sung by the 
geishas to a samisen accompaniment, and the dances 
themselves were a lot of graceful poses, in which the 
dancers waved their long sleeves and golden fans in 
time to the music. We entered the theater through 
an anteroom where one of the geishas went through 
the ancient tea ceremonial. It was very odd and in- 
comprehensible, we were all served with strong tea and 
sweets and the people sat in little boxes or pens on the 
floor, drank tea and sake, and smoked, hardly looking 
at the performance at all. 

This was the prettiest theater I had seen in Japan 
but they are all common compared to ours. I was 
greatly disappointed with the first one I visited — 
it was Danjuro's at Tokio — for I had supposed this 
great artist would have a theater which, for oriental 
splendor, could not be equaled in the world ; but to my 
surprise it was very plain with a rough, unfinished 
appearance. It was divided, as they all are, into little 
square boxes or pens, the floor was covered with mat- 
ting with a red blanket thrown over it, and that 



THE INTERIOR OF JAPAN 275 

was what we sat on. There were no dressing rooms 
near the stage for the actors ; they were in the front of 
the building and the performers went to them by a 
kind of passageway over the heads of the audience. 
Danjuro spoke in a very unnatural voice and did a 
good deal of ranting and roaring, which was not very 
pleasing to those who did not understand the plot of 
the play. He wore splendid costumes made from old 
brocades and embroideries, which we had a good 
chance to see as he walked to and from his dressing 
room. 

One of the most charming excursions from Kioto 
is to Lake Biwa, one of the largest and prettiest lakes 
in Japan. The legend is that this lake came into 
existence many centuries ago in a single night, and 
that Fujiyama, the sacred mountain, three hundred 
miles away, rose at the same time. The Biwa pine 
tree that grows near the shore of this lake is one of the 
most wonderful trees in the world. It is four him-* 
dred years old and its boughs have been twisted and 
bent until they spread over an acre of ground. They 
are held up by posts, and its trunk is five feet in diam- 
eter and sixteen feet in height. 

The return journey is by a canal through three 
tunnels in the mountains. These tunnels are very 
small and barely wide enough for two sampans to pass 
easily, and so low you cannot stand up in the boat. 
The only light is a little lantern in the bow, so small 
that a Javanese lightning bug would be power beside 



276 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

it. You have a strange feeling in these dark, sub- 
terranean passages, a sense of chilliness creeps along 
your spine, the cold sweat comes out on your forehead 
and you are told to sing to hear the echo; but the 
creaking of a little sampan is harrowing enough to 
your feelings without your producing any more 
strange noises. You have a sense of relief when you 
are once more in the daylight, but the tunnels are very 
novel and well worth going through once at least. I 
know of no others like them ; and it always seemed to 
me they were built as a habitation for the Japanese 
dragon rather than for commercial purposes. 

The Yaami is a beautifully situated hotel, on what 
is known as Eastern or Buddha hill. From here a 
good view is to be had of Kioto. It was a comfort- 
able place and I regretfully said my " sayonaras " 
(good-by) to the pleasant-faced proprietor, who 
bowed half a dozen times as I took my departure for 
Nara. It was a cold, rainy morning and the only 
heat in the railroad coaches was warming pans rilled 
with hot water and laid along the center of the first 
class coaches ; the water soon gets cold and a bundle of 
rugs must be taken along to wrap up in and keep 
warm. At the stations where you change cars a long 
stairway must be ascended from the train in which 
you arrive through a covered bridge and descended to 
the other train. This is no doubt a safe way and pre- 
vents many accidents but it is tedious to those not ac- 
customed to it. 



THE INTERIOR OF JAPAN Til 

NTara is one of the loveliest places in Japan; but 
on this rainy, foggy day it looked forlorn enough, for 
it was wrapped in an almost impenetrable gloom. It 
is prettiest in the spring, when the wistarias are in 
bloom, and its old jcryptamera forests are covered with 
these vines* which have woven and interwoven them- 
selves in and around them for centuries. In May, 
when they are in full bloom, great bunches of purple 
and white flowers hang everywhere from their trunks 
and branches. 

Nara is very ancient for it was the capital of Japan 
from 708 to 782. The legend is that the founder of 
Nam rode on a deer when he went to select a place for 
his habitation; and ever since that time deer have 
roamed here at will and it is a great deer park. They 
are innocent-looking little creatures but they approach 
strangers timidly, and beg for little cakes which are 
sold in booths along the wayside. The city has some 
wonderful antiquities; among them the oldest Bud- 
dist temple in Japan, founded more than twelve cen- 
turies ago, the place where the Buddhists first settled 
when this religion was brought into the country from 
India by way of China and Korea. The colossal Dai 
Butsu, the largest in the country was cast and put in 
the temple in 750. It is fifty-four feet in height and 
seated on a lotus pedestal. The whole image was 
once gilded but the gilding has worn off, leaving the 
face very dark ; and it does not have the placid, serene, 
Nirvana countenance of the Kamakura Dai Butsu. 



278 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

In one of Nara's prettiest cryptemara groves stands 
Kasuga, a large Shinto temple; and in one of the 
pavilions of this temple the sacred dances are given 
by some young girls, called priestesses, the daughters 
of the priests of the temples. They appear in painted 
faces and flowing robes of red and white, their hair 
parted in the middle and trimmed with flowers and 
tinseled hairpins hangs down their backs, and they 
hold tinkling bells aloft as they dance to the music of a 
drum, a squeaky old flute and a koto. There is no 
enumerating the stone lanterns that stand in row after 
row along the avenue and around the temples of Nara ; 
they are all finely executed and most of them are 
eleven centuries old. 

Fujisawa, my guide, was devout and on several oc- 
casions when we visited temples he said a prayer be- 
fore the shrines, but never once did he buy a prayer, 
chew it to a pulp, make a ball of it, and throw it at the 
gods, as many of the Japanese do. If it sticks they 
believe their prayers will be answered, if it falls they 
try again. He was anxious for me to visit Ise for the 
Chinese New Year, for many of the Japanese believe 
if they go there at this time they will be benefited both 
spiritually and bodily. The Emperor abolished the 
Chinese calendar more than thirty years ago and 
ordered the Gregorian used; but in this sacred locality 
they still celebrate the Chinese New Year, which took 
place in 1903 on January 28th. Ise is the name of a 
province and Yamada is the town near which the two 



THE INTERIOR OF JAPAN 279 

famous Shinto temples are situated which have caused 
this place to be known as the Mecca of Japan. 

The train to Yamada was slow and several hours 
behind time, and we did not reach there until after 
dark. The hotel is more than two miles from the rail- 
road station and none of the streets were lighted. 
The coolies were the fleetest that ever drew a riksha; 
they dashed through the darkness at a frightful rate, 
shouting at the top of their voices for the people to 
get out of their way. The rikshas went into ruts first 
on one side and then on the other, and I was obliged 
to hold on with all my strength to keep from being 
thrown out. The last dash was up a steep hill, three 
hundred feet in height, and around a sharp curve 
where we landed at the Gonikwai Hotel, and I 
breathed more easily and attributed my good luck in 
not getting my neck broken to being in the Holy 
City. 

The entrance to the hotel was through a portico 
brilliantly lighted with electricity. The two little 
daughters of the manager, dressed in fancy kimonos 
and with obis tied in butterfly bows on their backs, and 
the three housemaids dropped on their knees, placed 
their hands on the matting and touched the floor with 
their foreheads as I entered. The manager also ap- 
peared, placed his hands on his knees and gave me 
three very low bows, and the maids then drew the 
covering over my shoes, for the floor was polished 
Until it shone like a looking glass, and assisted me up 



280 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

the stairs to the second story. The stairs were polished 
like the floor and very steep and narrow, and there 
were no banisters or railings to hold to. I often won- 
dered how I would get down them in case the hotel 
took fire, and they were a nightmare to me as long as 
I stayed there. 

There were two dining rooms, one for the Japanese 
and the other for foreigners. My table was covered 
with a fine, white linen cloth, and in the center was a 
bouquet of red and white camelias. The first course 
was a vegetable soup, then baked carp ; after this roast 
beef from Kobe, or a province near Kobe, was served, 
and it was quite as good as Chicago beef. Birds on 
toast followed this course, then a lettuce salad; two 
kinds of vegetables were served with each meat course 
and, lastly, dessert, a sweet omelette, sponge cake and 
tea. 

The Gonikwai Hotel is the finest real Japanese 
hotel in the country; it is beautifully situated and 
from its upper windows and from the hill on which 
it stands, a good view is to be had of Owari Bay, 
many green islands and half a dozen towns. It was 
built by a stock company in order that the Emperor 
might have a comfortable stopping place when he 
came to Ise to worship his ancestors. The manager, 
very proudly, showed me the Emperor's room, about 
ten feet from where I was domiciled, and assured me 
it was built just like the room he occupied in the palace 
at Tokio. It was raised about a foot and a half from 




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«s^ 









O 



^ 

-O 



13 



&H 



THE INTERIOR OF JAPAN 281 

the floor ; the door slid back so I had a full view of the 
room, but when the door was closed the room was 
just like a box, for there were no windows nor any 
way of ventilating it. It was about ten feet square 
and six high ; the floor was covered with matting, and 
the sliding doors had sunken brass knobs with red 
tassels hanging from them, like those in the palace at 
Kioto. The ceilings were decorated with the sacred 
white storks, and at the sides and back of this room 
were smaller rooms for the Imperial bodyguards, for 
his sacred body is never out of then sight, day or 
night. When he comes to Yamada he brings his silken 
futons and wooden pillow and sleeps on the floor in 
the Japanese style and rides around in a riksha like 
an ordinary individual. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 

SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 

TN opposite directions on the outskirts of Yamada, 
-* about two miles apart, stand the Naiku and Geku 
temples, the most sacred of any of the Shinto temples 
in Japan. They are so sacred that none but priests 
and the royal family are allowed to so much as enter 
the outer walls that surround them. The Shinto re- 
ligion does not allow anything but the plainest archi- 
tectural simplicity in the erection of its temples, which 
are built of white wood, unpainted and with thatched 
roofs. There are no interior decorations belonging to 
them, but they are profusely decorated on the outside 
with brass. 

The great antiquity of Ise's temples is only a his- 
torical continuity, for a very ancient custom decrees 
that they must be razed to the ground every twenty 
years and rebuilt in exactly the same style. The new 
temples are built before the old ones are torn down 
and a great ceremonial takes place when the sacred 
emblems are transferred to the new edifices. Ise's 
temples were last rebuilt in 1889, and the wood of the 
old temples was made into sacred emblems and sold 
to the faithful. There are two sites for these temples 
about one hundred yards apart. 

282 



SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 283 

The temple of Naiku is dedicated to the Sun God- 
dess Ama-terasu, from whom all the Mikados are 
descended. The mirror in this temple, the emblem 
of the Sun Goddess, differs widely from the round 
mirror seen in other Shinto temples, and it is never 
exposed to view. It is said to be a likeness of the Sun 
Goddess and to have been sent to earth by herself; and 
it is held in such high veneration that it is often wor- 
shiped as a deity. 

Geku, the other great Ise shrine, is dedicated to 
Toyo-uke-bime, the Goddess of Food. This temple 
is beautifully situated in a grove of cryptemara, 
camphor and maple trees, with a wide and pretty ave- 
nue that leads to it lined with stalls where food is sold 
to the pilgrims. In a long pavilion near this avenue 
the sacred dances are given by a lot of priestesses and 
the stall where the sacred white horse is kept is near 
here, but the pilgrims buy and feed him so many sa- 
cred beans his stall has to be closed to keep him from 
being killed. 

Before daylight on New Year's morning I was 
awakened by the firing of cannon from the two men- 
of-war which lay at anchor in Owari Bay before Ya- 
mada. All day at intervals they fired salutes and 
both were gayly bedecked with flags and banners for 
the occasion. In front of the houses and shops along 
the streets hung new straw ropes with pieces of white 
paper hanging from them, the emblems of Shintoism. 
There were also many Japanese flags, great red discs 



284 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

on a white ground, and the streets were crowded with 
people from early morning until the next morning 
going to and from the temples. There were thou- 
sands of pilgrims besides the inhabitants of six neigh- 
boring towns. The nearest any of them got to the 
sacred edifices was the gate of the main entrances 
which had been withdrawn and a white curtain hung 
before the opening. The faithful worshippers, who 
had walked hundreds of miles to be here at this time, 
were allowed to stand within four feet of this gate, 
clap their hands, say a prayer, drop their offering and 
depart. It would have been death for any of them to 
have touched those curtains. 

For lifting with his walking stick the curtain which 
hides Geku's shrine from the public gaze, and remark- 
ing as he did so, " Why should I bow to such foolish 
superstitions; — if there is anything behind this cur- 
tain worth seeing, I want to see it," Viscount Mori 
lost his life. He was a remarkably clever man, once 
the Japanese representative to Washington, after- 
ward to London, then Minister of Education. Bun- 
taro, a fanatical Shinto priest, saw and heard what he 
did and said, and from that time shadowed him until 
an opportunity offered to kill him, on February 11, 
1889. The priest was at once dispatched but his act 
was approved by the Japanese, who made a martyr 
of him. Thousands visit his grave, burn incense on it 
and say prayers over it. 

The New Year's offerings, consisting of rice cakes 




A Japanese Temple 




Torii, or Temple Gate 



SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 285 

and money done up in paper packages, were several 
feet deep around the entrances. At night holy fires 
were lighted near the temples and kept burning from 
eight in the evening until daylight the next morning. 
Thousands of rice cakes were roasted in the fires and 
eaten by the people to keep off diseases, and for good 
luck and happiness throughout the year. Some cooked 
the cakes in the fires, rubbed them on their afflicted 
parts and then ate them. 

Shintoism has been little affected by Buddhism in 
Ise, and these temples are more like the aboriginal 
temples than any others, unless it be the great Shinto 
temple of Izumo on the west coast. Shinto, the primi- 
tive religion, or cultus, has existed from time im- 
memorial; it is very simple, nothing more than 
ancestral worship of heroes and great men who are 
supposed to become deities after death and to exercise 
a good influence over mortals. Being the religion of 
the Emperor and the court, it greatly predominates 
over the other religions in Japan, and the priests and 
temples receive an annuity from the government for 
their support. 

Twelve miles from Yamada is Toba. The road 
runs over wooded hills, through green valleys and 
along the Bay, and the scenery is beautiful ail the 
way. Our four coolies trotted along at a lively rate 
and covered the distance in a little over two hours, 
which would have been fair traveling for horses, con- 
sidering the steepness of the road. When I saw the 



286 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

little boxes of luncheon the riksha men had brought 
with them, I offered to buy more as there was not 
much over a half pint of cooked rice and a teacup full 
of cooked vegetables, which seemed wholly insufficient 
for men working so hard ; but they refused my offer, 
saying it was about as much as they ate at each of 
their three meals a day. I could hardly believe that 
these muscular little men, none of whom were over 
five feet two or three inches in height, could build up 
such strength on such modest rations. Their hard 
exertion and exposure, however, soon kills them, and 
hardly any live to be over thirty-five or forty years of 
age, usually dying of pulmonary diseases. 

Toba is a small town on the sea coast. Few strang- 
ers go there, for it is some distance from the beaten 
path of travel. Its principal visitors are coast steam- 
ers. From Hiyori-yama, a high hill at the edge of 
the town, one has a fine view of the ocean, and there 
is of course a tea house on its summit, so arranged 
that while eating luncheon and sipping tea you can 
enjoy the prospect. The ocean and harbor for a con- 
siderable distance are filled with green islands, many 
of them very peculiar in shape, and the white sails of 
junks and coasting steamers, thickly dotted over the 
water, make a pretty contrast with the blue sea and 
the green islands. 

We returned by another route, quite as pretty as 
the one we went over but much more hilly, in order 
to visit Futami, a picturesque and charming seaside 



SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 287 

resort, where the Empress Dowager spent her sum- 
mers some years before she died. The great attraction 
of Futami are two black rocks, not far from the shore, 
tied together with bright straw ropes. Murray's 
Guide Book to Japan calls them " Wife and Hus- 
band Rocks," and says the rope is symbolical of con- 
jugal union; but according to the story told by Fuji- 
sawa and other Japanese even more intelligent than 
he, the rocks have quite a different meaning. 

Fujisawa said, pointing to a spot on the shore just 
opposite the rocks, " It was about there our Mikado 
stood many centuries ago and prayed to the Sun God- 
dess, his relative, to show him some visible manifesta- 
tion of God; and as he prayed, great streaks of 
effulgent light descended from heaven, and two 
golden dragons, a male and a female, appeared on 
the water. They swam toward the Mikado, and when 
they came to the rocks they wound themselves round 
them, and from that time the rocks have been con- 
sidered sacred." 

Futami was crowded with pilgrims, who had come 
here to pray before the rocks, for as many pilgrims 
as visit the shrines of Ise, come here for this purpose 
every year. A booth near by did a thriving business 
selling photographs of the sun as it appeared on the 
day this miraculous event took place. 

Fujisawa told me of two more visits of the golden 
dragons to Japan, both of which were to Buddhist 
priests. These cunning, crafty men knew well how 



288 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

to work on the credulity of the Japanese in early 
times and pretended to have visits from both the 
dragon and the Sun Goddess. In this way they suc- 
ceeded in mixing their religion with that of the 
Japanese, until there is hardly a Shinto temple in the 
land about which there is not something that has been 
borrowed from the Buddhists. The dragon is wor- 
shiped as a deity by the ignorant, and highly re- 
spected even by the educated and more enlightened 
classes. The dragonology of Japan is very extensive, 
for there is no end to the marvelous and miraculous 
things attributed to this scaly wriggler the Japanese 
variety of which is distinguished from all the rest of 
the dragon family by the number of his claws, which 
is three. 

Nagoya was grewsome, cold and disagreeable to 
an extreme degree, as it was snowing, blowing and 
freezing when we arrived. The hotel was like an ice 
box and it was impossible to go on the streets on ac- 
count of the storm ; so I stayed in the hotel, rolled up 
in rugs to keep warm, and kept busy looking at the 
various articles the peddlers brought to the hotel. 
They had quantities of cloisonne, a business carried 
on extensively here; some of which was lovely, es- 
pecially the enameling on silver, which is the latest 
cloisonne. 

Nagoya is a rich commercial city, the capital of 
the province of Owari. It is famous for its potteries, 
the largest in the country, of which the Matsumura 




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to I 



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SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 289 

potteries are in the town and easily visited. They 
turn out good ware but nothing like those of Seto, 
about fourteen miles from Nagoya. These potteries 
have been established for nearly seven centuries. 
Their founders spent years in China learning the art, 
and Seto's porcelains are famous the world over for 
their fineness, beauty and quality. 

Nagoya's castle is another of the monuments left 
by the Shoguns. It was built for Iyeyasu's son, who 
was the first prince of Owari. The apartments occu- 
pied by this prince were magnificently decorated and 
enough of the decorations are still sufficiently perfect 
to show what they were like, although they are 
dimmed by time and were defaced by vandals at the 
time of the Restoration, as were many other things 
in Japan through the ignorance of that period. 

When I entered the railroad coach at Nagoya its 
only occupants were an English lady, a Japanese 
gentleman, and a little girl who resembled him. 
Grouped around them were a number of women, one 
of whom had her hair cut square at the neck and drawn 
back from the face with a kind of hairpin, after the 
manner of widows of the better classes, who wear 
their hair in this way and never re-marry. Her teeth 
were blackened according to the custom of the married 
women and many of the widows of Japan, and I af- 
terwards learned that she was the mother of the gen- 
tleman. 

As the time drew near for the train to depart, the 



290 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

widow and her companion wept bitterly and gave the 
little girl boxes of toys. The English lady said to the 
little girl, "Bid Grandma good-by, darling"; but 
what was the child to do for they neither kiss nor 
shake hands in Japan. She scowled and hung her 
head sullenly, while the son looked at his mother per- 
ceptibly affected; but as love and affection are un- 
demonstrated in Japan, he simply stood and blinked 
his tears away. The English lady offered her hand 
several times, but as no hand was offered to receive it, 
she seemed perplexed to know how to comfort the 
weeping women. It was a sad, strange parting. 

Strangers in a strange land soon get acquainted 
and the English lady and I were soon quite chatty. 
She introduced the Japanese gentleman to me as Mr. 
Teska* and said that their marriage was one of the 
romances of the Chicago World's Fair. Mr. Teska, 
being one of the owners of the Matsumara potteries 
at Nagoya, came with the exhibit to the Fair, after 
which he opened in New York one of the largest stores 
for the sale of Japanese porcelains in the United 
States, and there they had lived ever since. The little 
girl was their only child; she was named Keyo, mean- 
ing pure, after a waterfall near Kioto, and would 
have been pretty but for her Japanese eyes. 

When I left the train at Shidzuoka I noticed a 
great many people around the depot and flags con- 
spicuously displayed everywhere. I found that the 
commotion in this otherwise quiet town was due to 



SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 291 

the visit of forty members of the Japanese Diet, who 
had arrived only a short time before from Tokio, to 
attend to government business and to visit the temples. 
The Daito-kwam Hotel was in a whirl of excite- 
ment when I reached there, as it was getting ready 
for a banquet to be given them in the evening by the 
principal citizens of the town. This banquet took 
place in the foreign part of the hotel where three long 
tables were set for the guests, who ate with knives 
and forks food cooked in the Japanese style. There 
were innumerable courses, more than half of which 
were different kinds of fish, and the odor was so 
strong it could be smelled all over the hotel and far 
out in the street. Hot sake was served with every 
course. They did not smoke the little toy-like Japa- 
nese pipes with metal bowls and mouthpiece and bam- 
boo stems that hold about two whiffs of tobacco, but 
the best brand of Manila cigars. No maiko or geisha 
girls were bidden to this feast to entertain this august 
body with their songs and dances, but there was a 
master of ceremonials, however, and each member 
responded to a toast. They stamped their feet, clapped 
their hands, and " hurrahed " in true western style 
until about twelve o'clock, when the hot sake made 
them jolly and they began to sing, and such cater- 
wauling I never heard. This continued for an hour 
or more, when they commenced to say their adieus; 
they bowed and bowed until I thought their heads 
would fall off, and sucked their breath through their 



£92 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

teeth loud enough to wake up the town. They were 
dressed in foreign evening dress with a lot of old 
derby hats very much out of style. 

On one of my former visits to this place I was just 
in time to attend one of the meetings of the Red Cross 
Society. The Princess Komatsu, who is the President 
of the Society, stopped at the Japanese part of the 
Daito-kwam Hotel with her husband, sister and ladies 
in waiting, and I had a good chance to see them. The 
Princess and her sister were dressed in Parisian gowns 
and bonnets and over their heads carried parasols 
made of dainty lace, but their gowns fitted them badly, 
for they were much too large. They rode around the 
town in rikshas without any guards, and there was 
nothing to distinguish them from ordinary mortals, 
except that they were always accompanied by their 
ladies in waiting. The Princess Komatsu speaks sev- 
eral foreign languages fluently. She has shown won- 
derful ability in her management of the Red Cross 
Society, especially during the Chinese war. She is 
greatly interested in all the hospitals of the country 
and spends much of her time among them, especially 
in Tokio where she lives. 

The Red Cross Society of Japan numbers nearly 
8000. Oto was my guide on this occasion and many 
times he reiterated the fact that it was seldom a tourist 
saw so many of the real ladies of Japan assembled 
together. Nearly all of them were dressed in kimonos 
of different shades of drab silk crepe, embroidered 



SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 293 

with their crest. They were the most orderly, well- 
behaved lot of people I ever saw together. 

Shidzuoka is famous as the place where Iyeyasu, 
the Napoleon of Japan, spent his old age. Nothing 
can equal the mortuary temples of this Shogun and 
his grandson lyemitsu at Nikko, unless it be the Taj 
Mahal at Agra, India. They are situated on the top 
of a sacred mountain, surrounded by grand old for- 
ests that are centuries old, one of the most charming 
places on this earth. 

Nikko, next to Ise, is the most sacred place in 
Japan. When the last of the Shoguns surrendered 
his power in 1868 he removed to Shidzuoka, where he 
lives in seclusion, seldom being seen outside his estate. 
His dwelling is situated in an exceedingly lonesome 
looking place, in a large enclosure or park on the out- 
skirts of the town. Fujiyama, the sacred mountain, 
can be seen plainly from here. It never looked more 
divinely beautiful, for it was covered from top to 
bottom with a mantle of pure, white snow; there was 
not so much as a filmy cloud round its cone. It stood 
out clear-cut against the heavens in all its majesty and 
glory, peerless Fuji, the wonder and admiration of all. 

After we left Shidzuoka the ground was covered 
with about three inches of snow and the air was cold ; 
but the country looked warm and summery, and the 
trees were green. Through the car window we saw 
camelias in full bloom standing in the snow, and at 
one railroad station where we stopped the plum or- 



294 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

chards were so full of bloom their limbs were fairly 
bending. Cold, foggy weather does not seem to af- 
fect the flowers or prevent their coming out, and 
there is not a month in the year without some kind of 
lovely bloom in Japan. 

The only one of its flower shows I was disappointed 
in was the Chrysanthemum, which takes place in No- 
vember, the largest one being held at Tokio. Those 
I attended were held in a lot of common sheds along 
a narrow, hilly street with many flags and banners 
flying. There was nothing extraordinary about the 
size or beauty of the flowers; they had been woven 
into many odd designs but they were so inartistic I 
could hardly believe they were the work of the Japa- 
nese. The finest varieties of the chrysanthemum grown 
in the country are those in the Imperial Gardens, 
many of which are large, rich in coloring and won- 
derfully beautiful. The Emperor gives two large 
garden parties every year, one in the fall when the 
chrysanthemums are in bloom, and the other in the 
spring when the cherry blossoms are out. The Japa- 
nese call the chrysanthemum " Kiku," a great im- 
provement on the long, lumbering name we have 
given them. 

Traveling in the same car were three young girls 
dressed in dainty kimonos; they were the daughters 
of some of the best families, for no other class of 
Japanese ever travel in the first class coaches. They 
had natural red cheeks and lips, which contrasted 




Fujiyama, The Sacred Mountain 



SOME SACRED SPOTS OF JAPAN 295 

pleasantly with the artificial coloring so characteristic 
of the Japanese girl, and they were so sweet and had 
such charming manners I greatly admired them and 
wondered what their names might be, for the Jap- 
anese have a very aesthetic and pretty method of nam- 
ing their girls. A Japanese gentleman who was also 
traveling in the train and could speak English, kindly 
wrote their names for me in Japanese and translated 
them into English. One was O-Hana, which signi- 
fies " Honorable Blossom," another was O-Kiku, or 
" Honorable Chrysanthemum," and the third was 
named O-Ume, which means "Honorable Plum." 
The Honorific " O " is very promiscuously used out 
there; in fact, nearly everything is "Honorable "; it 
always precedes women's names and monkey's alike. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 

FAREWELL TO JAPAN 

AT Kodzu we went to the Kodzu-kwan, a Jap- 
anese tea house and inn combined, for luncheon, 
or rather to eat the luncheon I had brought along with 
me, for they do not serve foreign food there, only tea 
to foreigners. It was so chilly from the dampness I 
took my luncheon out of doors to eat it, which I found 
to be much more comfortable. 

Japanese dwellings are very superficial and look 
more like playhouses for children than habitations for 
human beings. They are nothing more than a lot of 
sliding screens which they slide both externally and 
internally. The inside screens are made of paper and 
at least one-half of those outside are lattices covered 
with a tough, white Japanese paper made from wood 
fiber, to let the light in and take the place of windows. 
Glass is beginning to be used quite extensively, and 
often there will be a few panes set in the paper screens 
for lookouts ; in some of the more pretentious houses 
the lattices are filled with glass instead of paper. The 
ceilings are of polished wood. The houses have no 
chimneys nor any way of heating them except hibachis 
'(fire-boxes). 

The Kodzu-kwan Inn was packed with Japanese 

296 



FAREWELL TO JAPAN 297 

who, like myself, were waiting for the train. They 
sat around on the floor wrapped in their thickly wad- 
ded kimonos, and hovering over hibachis, and they 
seemed to feel the cold as much as I did. The Jap- 
anese wear their kimonos thickly wadded in the winter 
time, but few of them wear any underclothing and 
they do not seem to be very warm for the kimonos 
usually fly open at the bottom every time they step. 
Their stockings are made of thick, white cloth, but 
they are of little protection to the foot for they only 
come just above the ankle joint and there is quite a 
space between them and the kimono. Their shoes 
are wooden clogs or straw sandals, held fast to the 
foot by a strap passed between the first and second 
toes, and their wearers slide and slip along in a manner 
we call "pigeon-toed." Both men and women go 
bareheaded with the exception of those who have 
adopted foreign headgear. 

After an hour's wait we took the electric tram car 
for Odawara. On the way Fujisawa said I was to 
have a surprise, as I was about to ride not only on the 
smallest railroad in the country but the only one of its 
kind in the world. Not far from where the cars 
stopped at Odawara was a long shed that had been 
made into a waiting place, and at a shop near by Fuji- 
sawa bought our tickets. Pointing to the Japanese 
letters on them he read " Jinsha Railroad." The lit- 
eral rendering of jinrikisha is " Man-power car- 
riage "; so I understood it was a man-power railroad; 



298 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and judging from the track, which was hardly two 
feet in width, I came to the conclusion it was a little 
baby railroad with cars drawn or pushed by men. 

After twenty minutes' wait the train made its ap- 
pearance. It consisted of a third, second and first 
class coach, each coach about four feet wide, six long 
and five in height. They had been made to seat six 
Japanese, but were hardly comfortable for four for- 
eigners. The tops were of wood and the sides of 
canvas. The first class coach was hitched in the rear, 
the second next and the third ahead, and they were 
all run separately, pushed from the rear end by cool- 
ies, the number varying, according to the load, from 
two or three. The coolies pushed the cars up the hills, 
until we came to a long incline of a mile or two where 
they jumped on to a board fastened to the rear of the 
coaches for the passengers' baggage, and rode until 
the next hill was reached. Then came a terrible push- 
ing and chanting and yelling of the coolies in order 
to work together, for sometimes the cars would stick 
and the poor fellows would have a hard time getting 
them started again. 

There were four stations on the route where we 
stopped, and at one of them we changed coolies. It 
took iis four hours to go sixteen miles to Atami, the 
terminus of the road. The scenery was very pictur- 
esque along the way, and now and then we caught 
glimpses of the ocean between the hills. In the valleys 
the plum and orange trees were in bloom and the air 



FAREWELL TO JAPAN 299 

was full of fragrance. Atami is the winter resort of 
the Japanese aristocrats, who come here to take the 
hot baths so famous for their curative powers. The 
water comes from a large geyser in the center of the 
town, which breaks out every four hours ; but since 
it has been piped into so many bathing places it does 
not shoot up to its former great height. The most 
attractive place is the villa of the Crown Prince, situ- 
ated at one side of the town. Before his marriage 
the Prince came here every winter, but now he comes 
only occasionally. His health is said to have been 
much improved by the baths. 

The Japanese hotels were crowded with people 
afflicted with different diseases, but I did not see any 
doctors in the place, and apparently the only remedies 
used were hot baths and massage, the principal cura- 
tives of the Japanese. The massage business is con- 
fined to the blind, and their plaintive cries may be 
heard in the streets as they grope their way along 
soliciting customers. They charge for their serv- 
ices not more than from ten to twelve cents of our 
money with a tip of two or three cents called " sake 
money." 

I found many curious and ingeniously made things 
in Atami's shops, in one of them three Buddhist gods. 
They were Amida, or Dai-Butsu (Great Buddha), 
which is the principal Deity worshiped in the Bud- 
dhist Temples of Japan; Kwannon, the Thousand- 
Handed Goddess of Mercy, who is supposed to listen 



300 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

to the prayers of the needy and sorrowing ones, and 
Jizu, the special protector of women and children, 
and forlorn and weary travelers. According to the 
traditions told of him, he has one of the most beautiful 
and sublime characters ever given to a deity. He is 
always represented with a shaven head and a sweet 
childlike countenance, holding in one hand a staff, in 
the other a jewel, and he is usually seated on a lotus 
throne. 

When the shopkeeper noticed these gods attracted 
my attention he brought them out and bowed pro- 
foundly to each as he sat them on the counter. He 
informed me they were at least three hundred years 
old, and added that he had bought them from some 
Buddhist priests in the interior who were obliged to 
dispose of the surplus gods around the temple to buy 
rice to keep them from starving. After the usual 
amount of haggling we arrived at a satisfactory price, 
and I bought them. The shopkeeper assured me that 
I would be prosperous and have good luck as long as 
I had them in my possession, although they had not 
proved of much use to the starving priests. 

Murray says that owing to the mildness of its 
climate and the beauty of its scenery and its many 
orange groves, the little peninsula of Izu where Atami 
is situated, can justly be called the Riviera of Japan. 
It is baking hot here in the summer time and Atami's 
winter visitors move over the hills twenty miles to 
Miyanoshita, a lovely summer resort situated on the 



FAREWELL TO JAPAN 301 

mountain sides. As I viewed it from afar it recalled 
to memory the pleasant time I spent there one October 
some years before. I never forgot its excellent hotel, 
the Fuji-Ya, it had such nice hot baths direct from 
the boiling springs. But one of the most charming 
things about it was the little Japanese maids who 
waited on the guests. They did everything around 
the hotel, even to carrying the baggage; I never had 
to ring for a waiter as long as I was there, for they 
were always flitting in and out of my room doing 
something to make me comfortable. 

We left Kudze for Tokio by the express train, 
which was packed full of passengers, all Japanese ex- 
cept myself. The first class coaches were divided into 
compartments, and it was in one of these I had to 
sit with five Japanese during my forty-mile ride. The 
air in the overcrowded and poorly ventilated car was 
almost unbearable, and recalled forcibly to my mind 
what an American lady who had lived in Japan for 
years had told me. She said that foreigners should 
not put too much confidence in the regard the Jap- 
anese often profess for them, for though it was prob- 
able they like Americans better than any other for- 
eigners, these in general are so disliked by them that 
even the odor from their bodies is abhorrent. She also 
said that when the Japanese have lived in foreign 
countries long enough to acquire the same odor, their 
relatives would have absolutely nothing to do with 
them when they returned to Japan, and that they had 



302 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

to burn their clothing and live on high-smelling fish 
and other rank Japanese food until the national odor 
returned to them before they would be recognized by 
their countrymen. I had always thought the smell 
of all orientals unpleasant, but never until I was shut 
up in that compartment with five of them did I realize 
what a strong, queer odor the Japanese have. No 
doubt it was because I never had sat near so many in 
such close quarters before, but whatever the cause I 
was sure if Americans should stay out there until they 
had acquired this odor, not only their own country- 
men but everyone else would shun them. 

When we reached Tokio it was storming and the 
ground was covered with a foot of snow. I was 
greatly amused at the scene around the depot, for 
many of the coolies wore storm coats made from rice 
straw, and they looked like a lot of little straw stacks 
out for a lark as they nimbly bobbed around attending 
to the passengers and their baggage. 

There was no perceptible change in the Imperial 
Hotel since my last visit. It still had a French chef 
and the various dishes on the bill of fare had long 
French names, but I could not detect the slightest 
taste of French cooking about them, but they were 
very palatable. The dining room was quite pretty 
and very pleasant. In the center was a pyramid of 
ferns, and perched high above it was a large bronze 
eagle with outspread wings, made by a poor Japanese 
artist for the World's Fair at Chicago and exhibited 



FAREWELL TO JAPAN 303 

in the Japanese section there. For some reason it was 
not disposed of and was sent back to Japan, where it 
was bought by the hotel company. I saw it often 
at the Fair where I had greatly admired it, for it is 
a wonderful piece of workmanship. It was made en- 
tirely by hand, and there are over 7000 perfect 
feathers on it, each of which was made separately. 

There is no order or regularity to Tokio and not 
much about it that reminds one of a city. Its million 
and a half of inhabitants occupy a space one hundred 
miles square, and are so scattered and separated 
by gardens, parks, parade grounds, moats, rivers, and 
canals, you are seemingly always going from one town 
to the other, most of them miles apart. It takes 
hours to get anywhere here, for the principal way of 
getting about is by jinrikishas, often called big baby 
carriages. There is but one electric tram car line that 
runs to the center of the city, and a few omnibuses, 
patronized only by the lower classes. The different 
parts of the city are exactly alike, — the streets wide, 
crooked and extending in all directions, the houses 
small, of one and two stories and built of wood, the 
highest of them being seldom over nineteen feet. 
Nearly every house has a little open shop in it with 
many odd advertising devices suspended from the 
front, which gives the streets a very picturesque ap- 
pearance. It is the largest city in Japan, and one of 
the most important since Iyeyasu moved the capital 
of the Shoguns there more than three centuries ago^ 



304 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Prior to that time it was only a small fishermen's 
village. 

The new palace where the Emperor now resides is 
built on the spot where the palace of the Shogun stood, 
though nothing but the old moats that surrounded the 
palace grounds are now perfect. The present Em- 
peror, Mutsu-Hito, whose divine origin does not pre- 
vent him from being a great and good ruler, takes the 
deepest interest in all governmental affairs, and it has 
been his progressive ideas which have brought about 
most of the many changes in the country in so short 
a time and caused western manners and customs to 
spread so rapidly over the empire. His desire seems 
to be to place the country on a plane with the most 
enlightened nations of the world, and his success in 
this direction has been marvelous. A few more years 
of such rule and old Japan will have passed away and 
the country become so modernized that its former in- 
stitutions will be as much of a curiosity to the people 
as were those of modern times. 

" His Majesty, our Emperor," as the people call 
him, is the most honored and respected by his subjects 
of any ruler in the world. I am sure he could travel 
from one end of the country to the other without any 
protection whatever and be treated by the people with 
the greatest respect everywhere, for patriotism is in- 
born in the Nipponese. The little tot scarcely able 
to balance itself on its tiny clogs makes the same low 
bow and seemingly quite as understandingly as its 




The Emperor of Japan 



FAREWELL TO JAPAN 305 

elders, or most of them at least, whenever their Em- 
peror is spoken of. Hearn says, when teaching 
among the Nipponese, if he asked the pupils in his 
various classes to tell him their dearest wish, nine out 
of every ten would answer, " To die for His Sacred 
Majesty, our Beloved Emperor " ; and that the wish 
came straight from their hearts, as pure as any wish 
of martyrdom ever born. 

The Emperor was born in Kioto, November 3, 1852, 
and ascended the throne on the death of his father in 
1867, when he was but fifteen. The same year the 
Shogun gave up his power which thereby reverted to 
the Emperor, the rightful ruler. In 1868 he moved 
to Yedo, afterwards called Tokio, where he has lived 
ever since; and, though he has thirty palaces in as 
many different towns and villages which have been 
capitals of the country at one time and another, he 
has never seen half of them. 

The most notable event of the year is the Emperor's 
birthday celebration, November 3d. He is not a 
handsome man but he has a distinguished and stately 
bearing and this, with his military uniform as Gener- 
alissimo of the Army, makes him quite as distin- 
guished looking as any of the monarchs of Europe. 
Before he was seventeen years old he was married to 
Haru-Ko, born May 9, 1850, the daughter of Ichijo 
Tadaka, a court noble of high rank. She has no royal 
blood in her veins, for the Emperors of Japan are not 
allowed to marry the imperial princesses, their wives 



306 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

being chosen for them from among the five noblest 
families in the country. 

The Empress always appears in public in foreign 
dress which is no more becoming to her than it is to 
the more lowly Japanese women, and both she and 
the court ladies wear splendid jewels. This was not 
the style until the present reign, and it will be a long 
time yet before the wearing of jewelry will be uni- 
versally adopted by the women of the country. 
Though very small and not so handsome as some say 
she is she must be a very dainty and charming woman 
in her native dress. She is very literary in her taste 
and takes quite an interest in the schools of the 
country. 

The Empress has never had any children, the Crown 
Prince, Ham, or Yoshi-Hito, being the son of the 
Emperor and the Countess Yanagiwara. In olden 
times the Emperors were allowed one wife and twelve 
concubines. Mutsu-Hito, the present Son of Heaven, 
falls somewhat short of this, for he has one wife and 
only nine concubines. They were all selected for him 
from the Kuge families, which are the noblest of the 
country, and they all have a social standing with ele- 
gant establishments of their own, and are much re- 
spected. The only place they are never seen is at 
court. 

The Emperor has had a number of children by 
these women, five of whom are living. A law was 
passed in 1900 which, it is thought, will in time help 



FAREWELL TO JAPAN 307 

to rid the country of this evil. In future no one but 
the legitimate sons of the Emperor and Empress will 
be permitted to ascend the throne, and in case they 
have no children it will fall to some subordinate branch 
of the family. This law will not affect the accession 
of Yoshi-Hito, for he was appointed Crown Prince 
November 3, 1889, before this law was passed. He 
married in May, 1900, Princess Saba, in the Imperial 
Palace of Tokio, and two sons have been born to them; 
so it will be some time yet before the Japanese will 
have to look outside the royal family for a ruler. 

In Shiba and Uyeno parks are the mortuary tem- 
ples of the Tokugawa Shoguns. Some of the largest 
of them have been burned and all have suffered from 
vandalism. The interior decorations of those remain- 
ing have been little hurt, and they are wonderfully 
beautiful, resembling the Temples of Nikko, only 
much smaller. Also in these parks are the govern- 
ment bazaars, which are very extensive. Many pretty 
and novel things can be bought here much more rea- 
sonably than in the shops at Tokio. 

At the Imperial Museum in Uyeno one sees many 
odd and curious things, some of them dating back ten 
centuries. Nearly everything in it has either some 
historic associations or individual peculiarities that 
make it worth seeing. Asakusa, another park not far 
from Uyeno, contains the famous old Kwannon tem- 
ple which covers over an acre of ground. It is the 
great resort of the people who come here to worship 



308 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

and spend their leisure time under the large trees that 
surround it. 

There are nearly 2000 temples in and around Tokio 
which with the arsenal and the government printing 
office are interesting places to visit. The government 
buildings are disappointing; the Parliament House 
has often been taken for an ordinary factory, and, 
though it is better looking on the inside than on the 
outside, it is no such building as one would expect to 
see in a country like Japan. 

Missionaries are well distributed all over the coun- 
try, but there are more in Tokio than anywhere else. 
Missionary work has not been exactly at a standstill 
for the past twelve years in Japan, but so few have 
professed Christianity during this time, it has been 
discouraging to the missionaries, who take a different 
view of the situation. Some of them, though a little 
hesitatingly, say that the present state of things hardly 
warrants them in going on with the work, and that 
their time and money could be spent more advanta- 
geously in some other way; others among them feel 
that while they are not gaining much, they are not 
going back, and it is their Christian duty to go on 
with their work. These believe their influence has al- 
ways been a great power for good and has accom- 
plished wonders in bringing about the various changes 
which have taken place in the country since the mis- 
sionaries went there. 

It is true the missionary influence has been in excess 



. 




The Empress of Japan 



FAREWELL TO JAPAN 309 

of their numbers ; if it were not so their forty-six years 
of labor in Japan would not have amounted to much, 
for at the present time the total number of Christians 
of all sects is only 121,000, of which about 100,000 
are missionaries and native converts belonging to the 
missions. They have always been kindly treated by 
the Japanese and protected and encouraged in their 
work by the government. Strangers who have taken 
the pains to investigate their work speak in the highest 
terms of it. When William E. Curtis visited Japan 
a few years ago and wrote " The Yankees of the 
East," one of the cleverest books ever written on 
Japan, he simply lauded the missionaries to the skies. 
His pages, " The Missionary Problem," have been 
read and praised the world over. 

Tokio is situated at the head of Yedo Bay, eighteen 
miles, or less than an hour's ride from Yokohama. 
Early one morning I said my adieus and went over 
to Yokohama, and I was so delighted to be there I 
felt like saying " Ohio " to every Jap I met. This is 
the way the Japanese word for " Good-morning " is 
pronounced, but it is spelled " Ohayo." I have liked 
Yokohama ever since the first time I visited Nippon, 
for it was there I landed and had my first glimpse of 
this little wonderland of the Pacific. Those days of 
sight-seeing were the most enjoyable I ever spent, — 
everything was so curious and different from anything 
I had seen before, it was one round of happy surprises. 

Yokohama is more foreign than any of the other 



310 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

cities, but it is still sufficiently oriental to be enjoy- 
able though changing rapidly. On all my visits there 
I have gone to the Grand Hotel, the popular stopping 
place where one sees people from everywhere. It is 
situated on the Bund, a well-paved street along the 
front of the harbor, and is very un-Japanese, the 
clerks in the office being Chinese and the proprietor a 
rather bland old German. 

Benten-dori and Honcho-dori, Yokohama's main 
shopping streets, are wonderfully attractive, and all 
kinds of Japanese goods may be bought there, from 
the cheapest to the most expensive. The open shops, 
with their matting-covered floors that give these 
streets an attractive appearance and are often mis- 
taken by strangers for show places on account of the 
peculiarities of the goods and the novel way they are 
arranged, are gradually disappearing, for all the shops 
where embroideries, jewelry, silverware, ivory carv- 
ing, bronzes, egg-shell porcelain and other rich and 
costly things are sold, now have glass windows with 
the goods tastefully arranged in them. 

Yokohama is often called the Paris of the East, and 
people go there from far and near to have their clothes 
made. Some of the largest tailoring establishments 
are owned by the Japanese but all the tailors are Chi- 
nese. They make both men's and women's clothing 
equally well, for they get their fashions direct from 
Europe and America every month. 



AMERICA 



I 



CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 

HAWAII AND HONOLULU 
HAWAII NEI 

If you had the gift of a poet, 
^And could make another feel 
i The fragrant balm laden breezes 
•"And the song birds' tenderes'j peal; 
j Could you paint a beautiful picture 
! Of blossoms rich and sweet, 
t Of luscious fruits and royal palms, 
.Of nature itself complete; 

Could you paint in words or on canvas, 

The sapphires, the violets and gold, 

The emeralds, turquoise and amber, 

The ocean and rainbow hold; 

Could you picture the rugged mountains 

With their ever-changing light, 

And the silvery water-fall leaping 

From some precipitous height; 

You must choose a theme majestic, 

With curtains of blue and gray, 

A carpet of bright green grasses — 

Then call it " Hawaii Nei." 

— By my dear friend, Letitia Mackay-Walker. 

T was my intention to return to America via Van- 
couver, and Captain Archibald, learning of this 

313 



SU NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

before I left the steamer at Kobe, gave me a little 
surprise in the form of the following letter of intro- 
duction to the Captain of the Empress of India 
which I had hoped to take at Yokohama : 

"Dear Captain Marshall: 

" This will serve to introduce to you Miss Miller, 
who intends to cross with you to Vancouver next trip. 
She is traveling alone. Be kind to her. You will find 
her very interesting. 

" Yours sincerely, 

" R. Archibald." 

Bad weather upset my plans however, and I did 
not reach Yokohama in time for the Empress of 
India, so, after a short sojourn there, the rikshas 
drew up in front of the Grand Hotel for the passen- 
gers one morning and we went down the Bund to the 
hatoba (landing-place), where the launch was wait- 
ing to take us out to the Coptic, which was anchored 
just outside the harbor. This was my twentieth and 
last steamer. 

It is seldom one sees such a forlorn-looking lot of 
travelers as these were. Their sunken eyes, hollow 
cheeks and sallow complexions showed plainly that 
their stay in the Orient had not agreed with them, 
and that they were going home to recuperate. With 
more than half the passengers ailing at the start, this 
long journey, monotonous at the best, was doleful 
indeed. There was not so much as a game of deck 



HAWAII AND HONOLULU 315 

billiards, shuffle-board or quoits all the way, though 
several times there was an effort to get up an enter- 
tainment in the evening. A general from Manila 
said he would give us a talk on the Philippines, and 
an English captain who had been six years in China 
volunteered to tell us about his experiences there, 
but a storm came up and everybody took cold, and 
that was the last heard of the entertainments. The 
first time all the passengers were together after we 
started was on the tenth day out when we arrived at 
Honolulu at eleven in the morning. 

This was my fourth visit to these beautiful islands 
situated way out in the Pacific, hundreds of miles 
from anywhere, but easily reached, however, by five 
lines of steamers which call regularly at Honolulu, 
and carry people there from everywhere. It is said 
there are more races and mixtures of the races in 
Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, than in any other 
city in the world. The real Hawaiians are a fine- 
looking race, but nearly half of them are mixtures, 
as ever since the islands were discovered by Captain 
Cook in 1778 they have married and intermarried 
indiscriminately with all nationalities. The royal 
family was no exception in this respect for its mem- 
bers mixed quite as indiscriminately with the negro 
race, and King Kalakaua, the former monarch of 
Hawaii, had the features of an African. 

Often the mixed races are very clever, and where 
they are mixed with the white races, exceedingly hand- 



316 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

some. Many of the Hawaiians are inclined to be cor- 
pulent; this is attributed to their inordinate love of 
"poi" (pronounced poy), a doughy substance made 
from the taro plant, of a grayish color. It has a sour 
bitey taste and is considered a healthful food. 

The first settlers of Hawaii came from Southern 
Polynesia more than 5000 miles distant, in frail little 
boats which they built themselves. They must have 
been a clever race even at this remote period, or, 
with their limited knowledge of navigation they would 
never have succeeded in reaching these pretty green 
islands where it is always summer and where the 
skies are often a beautiful blue and the breezes are so 
balmy. 

One of the most extraordinary things about these 
dark-skinned islanders is their honest}?-. Prior to 
July 7, 1898, when Hawaii became a possession of the 
United States, thieving of any kind was almost un- 
known on the islands. I stayed four weeks in one 
of the largest hotels in Honolulu where my room 
opened on to the lower piazza with not a bit of glass 
in the windows, only wire screens such as we use to 
keep out insects. I never locked my room night or 
day, nor any of my trunks, yet I was not disturbed 
nor was anything taken; I would not have cared to 
stay in that room in Chicago even in the day time. 

The dress worn by the native women is a loose, 
baggy, unbecoming garment known as the " Mother 
Hubbard " which was introduced into the islands by 



HAWAII AND HONOLULU 317 

the first missionaries who came here and found the 
people in pnris naturalibus. Although good St. 
Patrick never visited the twelve islands that compose 
the Hawaiian group and sent the reptiles to perdition 
by his curses, there are no snakes nor toads found on 
them. The vegetation is tropical, the principal 
products sugar, coffee and rice. The eight inhabited 
islands of the group have a population of 154,000. 

During one of my former visits to Honolulu oc- 
curred the death of Princess Kaiulani. This ambi- 
tious young woman had been appointed by her uncle, 
King Kalakaua to succeed him, but her aunt, Liliuo- 
kalani, was to act as Queen during the minority of the 
Princess who was sent to England to be educated. It 
was while she was living abroad that the monarchy 
was overthrown, and the disappointment to the 
Princess was very keen. She bore it bravely, but in 
less than two years she returned to Honolulu and 
died March 6, 1899, after a short illness. 

These were sad days ; the mourning and wailing of 
the natives for their dead Queen, as many of them 
called the Princess, could be heard all over the town. 
The very skies seemed in sympathy with them and 
mingled its tears with theirs, for every morning dur- 
ing the week she lay in state there was a heavy down- 
pour of rain. The gloom became so depressing that 
some of the foreign population wanted the authorities 
to stop the wailing of the natives, but the request was 
very wisely refused. 



318 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

I went to Aianhau, Princess Kaiulani's home, to see 
her after she was dead. The palace was two stories 
in height and covered considerable ground; it was 
built in the open, airy style characteristic of warm 
climates and was covered with many green, lacey 
vines. The interior decorations and furnishings were 
tasteful but very gorgeous and the great park around 
the palace was filled with all kinds of luxuriant tropi- 
cal trees, palms, shrubs and flowering plants. The 
air was filled with the most exquisite perfume and the 
songs of many birds that seemed to sing their sweetest 
lays as they hopped from bough to bough in their 
merry, happy way. 

In the midst of all this loveliness a catafalque had 
been placed in one of the large parlors which opened 
wide on to a broad piazza. The catafalque was draped 
in yellow, the royal color, and the same coloring was 
used in the decorations of the room. The Princess' 
robe was made of soft, white silk trimmed with row 
after row of dainty Valenciennes lace; a thin white 
tulle veil was fastened to the coils of her wavy black 
hair and fell over her face and robe. Her hands 
clasped a white prayerbook: 

And on her lips the faint smile almost said, 

No one knows life's secret — but the happy dead." 

She did not look like one dead, but like a pretty 
sleeping bride. Three women on either side of the 




>■•-., 





.** 



<■ 



£!,;«■ f 

Princess Kaiulani 



HAWAII AND HONOLULU 319 

catafalque wore deep yellow collars made of birds' 
feathers, and waved Kahilis over the Princess. They 
looked like feather dusters with long handles. Kahilis 
very early became the sign of rank and every chief 
was accompanied by his Kahilis bearers. They are 
made of all kinds of feathers; some of the latest are 
made of silk trimmed with ribbons; the pole of the 
Kahilis was often a spear made of the native coa 
wood. Some of the earliest were made of tortoise 
shell. It was thought a mark of honor for a con- 
queror to put a bone of his enemy in the handle of 
his Kahilis. 

It was a sad occasion when the Princess' remains 
were taken from her home at midnight, accompanied 
only by a few friends and relatives. The cortege 
wended its way through the streets guided by the light 
of torches, for the night was very dark, and the band 
played a low, soft dirge all the way to the Kawaia- 
hao Church, where the Royal family had been devout 
worshipers for years. This church is the oldest on 
the islands, having been founded by the first ten con- 
verts to Christianity in 1825. The present edifice 
was dedicated in 1842; the faithful worshipers not 
only quarried the stone but carried it all by hand to 
build it. 

The casket was placed upon a bed of roses before 
the high altar and a constant stream of people filed 
past it from early Friday morning until Sunday after- 
noon, when, after a short but impressive service, it 



320 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

was borne from the church and placed in a hearse 
drawn by two hundred barefooted Hawaiian boys 
dressed in white duck suits and hats of the same color. 
They drew it up the long winding road to the top of 
the bluff where the Royal Mausoleum stands, the 
Royal Hawaiian band playing the dirge. Following 
the hearse were the Royal coaches, in the first of which 
was Mr. Cleghorn, the Princess' stepfather, in the sec- 
ond, Queen Kapiolani, widow of King Kalakaua. 
The third was empty as Liliuokalani was in Washing- 
ton, D. C, and the fourth carried two young cousins 
of the Princess. Then came President Dole's car- 
riage and those of the other government officials and 
lastly, a long line of natives on foot, wearing Mother 
Hubbard wrappers, with long strings of yellow blos- 
soms wound around their hats and necks, wailing and 
moaning piteously. When the casket was placed be- 
side those of the other Royal dead a short prayer was 
said, and the great doors of the Mausoleum were 
swung shut. 

Thus ended the career of this charming young 
woman, who would have been Queen of Hawaii had 
not cruel fate ruled otherwise. 

The Kinau plies between Honolulu and Hilo where 
a stage carries one to the volcano of Kilauea. I was 
told this little vessel had been thoroughly overhauled 
and was very comfortable and steady-going; it lacked 
all these admirable qualities when I took the journey 
to the volcano in the spring of 1899, for at that time 



HAWAII AND HONOLULU 321 

she rolled, pitched and floundered about in a way that 
was amazing even to old travelers. 

We started at two in the afternoon. A trip among 
the islands would have been delightful if we could 
have remained in an upright position long enough to 
look at them, but glimpses caught at an angle of 
forty-five degrees are not at all satisfactory. Our 
worst experience was when we came to the Island of 
Maui, the second largest in the group. The water 
was too shallow for the Kinau to make the dock so 
she anchored about a mile from shore. The wind was 
blowing hard and the ocean was rough ; it seemed as if 
the vessel would go to pieces. There we stayed for 
three hours while two hundred head of cattle were 
swum out to the vessel in squads of six, tied to small 
boats, a rope fastened securely around their horns by 
which they were pulled up and swung on board. They 
all came down sprawling on the deck half dead from 
their swim in the rough sea and from the salt water 
they had swallowed. Some horses were put aboard 
by means of slings; they trembled and seemed to 
suffer more than the cattle. The way these poor 
dumb brutes were treated called forth many protesta- 
tions from the passengers. The Captain tried to con- 
sole us by telling us it was the only way traffic could 
be carried on between the islands because the shallow 
water and coral reefs made it unsafe for vessels of 
any size to approach the shore. 

Early in the morning we landed at Hilo, the prin- 



322 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

cipal town of Hawaii, the largest island and the one 
for which the group is collectively named. Hilo is 
a pretty little town of 7000 inhabitants. 

After breakfast at the Hilo Hotel we set out on 
the thirty-mile ride to the Volcano House. This was 
the most enjoyable part of the whole journey. The 
road ran near some of the largest coffee and sugar 
plantations on the island, through a luxuriant tropical 
jungle of vines, trees, palms and ferns. The lumber- 
ing old stage drawn by four horses was a little shaky 
at times, as the road was hilly and rough in places 
and the horses went in all sorts of gaits from a walk 
to a gallop. 

At 3 p. m. the Volcano House was reached. 
Good saddle horses were brought for those of the 
party who wanted them for the three-mile trip across 
the cooled lava, which extended for miles in all di- 
rections to the crater, — a tremendous hole in the 
ground nine miles in circumference and 600 feet deep, 
throwing up clouds of black smoke and sulphurous 
gases so stifling and hot that we were unable to go 
very near it. In places the crust around the crater 
was so hot we could not step on it. There were rum- 
bling sounds heard in the crater and frequent earth- 
quakes in the neighborhood. This indicated the ap- 
proaching eruption which took place three months 
later, July 4, 1899, and has occurred at intervals ever 
since. 

Honolulu had changed greatly since I visited it in 










Katcaiahao Church 

Where Princess Kaiulani's Funeral was Held 




Funeral Procession of Princess Kaiulani 



HAWAII AND HONOLULU 323 

1897, the last year of monarchial rule, and I longed 
for the sleepy-go-easy air of the old days rather than 
its prevailing improved and modernized condition and 
the savor of American hustle. 

I stopped at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, formerly 
owned by the government but now under the manage- 
ment of a stock company. At night the grounds and 
the band stand, which attracts much attention on ac- 
count of its oriental appearance, were brilliantly 
lighted with electric lights creating a charming effect 
as they gleamed through the tropical foliage. The 
Royal Hawaiian Band, now called the Government 
Band, played in the evening for the guests. There were 
thirty pieces in the band and two native women vocal- 
ists, and the music was delightful, the singing of the 
women being the most enjoyable feature of the con- 
cert. Their deep, sweet-toned voices could be heard 
distinctly as they sang song after song to the accom- 
paniment of the band and were often called upon to 
repeat them as encores. 

The Hawaiians are wonderful musicians ; their fav- 
orite instrument is a small guitar called a " ukulele," 
which is played as an accompaniment for their songs. 
The prettiest of these songs are those sung to accom- 
pany the hula, the native dance. The dance itself is 
not artistic ; and there are very few changes in it, and 
the strains are repeated over and over again until the 
dance is finished. 

Honolulu has some fine new hotels. I went out to 



324 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Waikiki, its popular seaside resort, and had luncheon; 
at the Moana. It is four stories in height with all the 
latest improvements ; the dining room extends out 
over the sea so that the guests can enjoy the breezes 
while eating. It has a surf -bathing place lighted by 
electricity, as the cool evenings are the only enjoyable 
time for bathing. 

Late in the afternoon, when I returned to the 
steamer, a mixed crowd was on the dock and the native 
women were selling long strings of blossoms of every 
color called " leis." These " leis," made to wear as 
hat bands and necklaces, are sometimes seashells or 
seeds and are given to friends on their departure. 
This is a Hawaiian custom and is a means of showing 
their regard for their friends when they bid them 
good-by. Often one sees people on the decks of de- 
parting vessels with twenty-five or thirty of these 
gorgeous flower strings wrapped about them. 

As the steamer moved out from the dock and turned 
its nose seaward, the Government Band that plays 
at the departure of every ocean steamer struck up 
"America." This was the signal for general rejoic- 
ing; the passengers clapped their hands and waved 
their handkerchiefs to those on shore until Honolulu 
faded in the dim distance. Forward seated on the 
deck were the Chinese passengers, chatting, smoking 
and gambling. The clinking sound made by the 
dominoes as they shoved them about could be heard 
night and day, for they never ceased gambling 



HAWAII AND HONOLULU 325 

through the whole voyage. All the servants and 
sailors on board were Chinese. They are employed on 
nearly all the steamers sailing between San Francisco 
and the Orient as they are more obliging and faithful 
and do their work just as well as other nationalities. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 

CALIFORNIA— AND THE HOME OF THE MORMONS 

T> EFORE a Chinaman sails for America the steam- 
ship company that carries him signs a contract 
that it will bring either him or his dead body back to 
China; for the Chinese believe if they are not buried 
in Chinese soil they will remain in a state of eternal 
torment, and when any of them die at sea the bodies 
are embalmed by the surgeon, put into a coffin and 
sealed up, and either set on the forward end of the 
steamer with a tarpaulin thrown over them or hoisted 
into one of the lifeboats, and when the steamer arrives 
at Hongkong turned over to friends who await them. 
On the morning of the sixteenth day after leaving 
Yokohama, we steamed through the Golden Gate and 
entered the harbor of San Francisco. As soon as we 
were alongside the dock our baggage was carried to 
the customs house, an annoying experience for us 
owing to two young men from New York who seemed 
to have more money than brains. They had arrived 
on the steamer just ahead of us and boasted of how 
many bolts of silk and hundreds of cigars they had 
brought through the customs house in the face of the 
officers. This had found its way into the San Fran- 
cisco newspapers and made trouble for the customs 

326 



CALIFORNIA— AND HOME OF MORMONS 327 

house, so when our steamer arrived the inspectors 
made up for their former slackness by tearing our 
baggage to pieces and treating us all as if we were 
smugglers. 

Still another unpleasantness awaited us. It was 
almost impossible to find hotel accommodations, as the 
city was full of winter visitors and the passengers for 
two ships about to sail for the Orient. After search- 
ing for nearly half a day I found a suite of four 
rooms at the Grand Hotel. I next turned my atten- 
tion to my four trunks, which were in a chaotic state 
after the pulling over they had had at the customs 
, house. I am not a globe-trotter who travels with 
hand-bags and dress-suit cases. I tried one trip 
equipped in this way and that was enough. One 
never knows on a trip around the world whom one 
will meet or where one will be invited. A lady should 
carry enough baggage with her always to be neat and 
clean, and have pretty, stylish gowns for extra 
occasions. 

The arduous task of shaking the wrinkles out of my 
clothes was only begun when I heard a knock at the 
door. Thinking it one of the servants I said, " Come 
in," and who should walk in but two reporters from 
the San Francisco Examiner, who said they had been 
searching for me in every hotel and boarding-house in 
the city. When the paper appeared next morning it 
contained my photograph and an article nearly two 
columns long. This paper is an exponent of the 



328 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

" New Journalism " and the columns were headed in 
this way: "A Woman Encircles the Globe five 
times. She has gone through the Customs House two 
hundred times; visited five thousand mosques and 
temples; rejected one hundred proposals of mar- 
riage; met forty rulers of the earth; visited nearly 
every capital of the world; rode in every known 
vehicle ; four trunks of Parisian gowns." 

San Francisco before its devastation was one of our 
most attractive cities. It had hundreds of handsome 
buildings, wide sloping streets, elegant shops, good 
hotels and the best of transportation. Its wealthy 
aristocrats lived on Nob Hill in palatial residences 
with yards full of all kinds of flowers. The top of 
the hill was reached by a grip-car line which ran 
smoothly up and down it. This was the first cable 
street-railway constructed. Nob Hill and the entire 
business district were swept by the great fire of April 
18, 1906, and a new and more beautiful city is blos- 
soming from the ruins. 

The views in and around San Francisco were and 
are unsurpassed anywhere. Its large parks, Botan- 
ical and Zoological Gardens, the famous Sutro 
Heights and Baths, the Seal Bocks and Cliff House, 
besides many other interesting places are a constant 
attraction for travelers. Strangers who came in the 
old days sought first of all a trip to Chinatown, a novel 
place, but much too clean and orderly for a real 
Chinatown. 



CALIFORNIA— AND HOME OF MORMONS 329 

Not only San Francisco, but the whole of Cali- 
fornia, had advanced amazingly since the first time I 
visited it. Trusting that by way of comparison with 
the Great Siberian Railroad it may interest my read- 
ers to know how we traveled on our first overland rail- 
road to California, I will recall my experience in 
journeying over the road at that early time. 

At that time there was but one railroad and no 
through trains to California. One left Chicago by 
either the Rock Island or the Burlington Railroad 
leading out of Illinois, across Iowa, to Omaha, where 
passengers going to California changed for the Over- 
land train, which was composed of three sleepers and 
two baggage cars drawn by one engine. However, 
in some places where the snow was deep and the grade 
steep, two engines were necessary. 

The railroad was in two divisions, called the Union 
Pacific and the Central Pacific, and the passengers 
changed cars at Ogden, where the two roads met. The 
fastest time made by any of the trains between Omaha 
and San Francisco was sixteen miles per hour, and it 
was a seven-day trip from Chicago to San Francisco. 
I was eleven days going on account of land slides and 
snow banks. The tickets cost $150 in gold each way, 
and for a double berth in the sleeping cars, $50 each 
way. For nearly half the distance the road ran across 
the plains stretching as far as the eye could reach and 
the roadbed was as smooth as a floor. The highest 
altitude attained was 6000 feet, but the ascent was so 



330 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

gradual no one would ever have known the highest 
point if the conductor of the train had not an- 
nounced it. 

The passengers took their meals at the railroad 
stations, there were no dining cars in the United States 
nt that time. The bills of fare offered little variety: 
usually buffalo steaks or roast bear-meat, as black as 
pitch and as tough as leather ; watery potatoes, as most 
of them had been frozen; bread, poorly baked, and 
rancid butter ; and black, muddy coffee with the sugar 
cooked in it, without milk or cream. The desserts 
were of cooked, dried fruits prepared in different 
ways. All meals were $1. 

When we were half way across Nebraska the In- 
dians began to come to the stations to beg ; often there 
would be two or three hundred of them; they were 
exceedingly filthy and made our stay at the stations 
unpleasant, as the odor from their bodies was really 
nauseating. Among the thousands that I saw only 
two had anything remarkable about them: a woman 
128 years of age and her grandson 80 years of age. 
The latter had been sent five times to Washington, 
D. C, to intercede for the Indians in regard to lands 
and other privileges that they wished the United 
States to grant them. The old lady was treated 
kindly by the conductors of the trains, who allowed 
her to go inside the cars and beg from the passengers. 
She knew but one English word and that was " green- 
backs." This she would yell at the top of her voice 




Brigham Young 



CALIFORNIA— AND HOME OF MORMONS 331 

at every passenger. For several years after the close 
of our civil war the five and ten-cent pieces were paper 
and all the metal money in circulation was bogus. 
This the old lady had found out by sad experience, as 
she had been fooled by it a number of times, and that 
was the reason she insisted on everybody giving her 
greenbacks. She was known all along the railroad on 
account of her great age. As soon as the passengers 
left Omaha they were on the lookout for " Old Green- 
backs," as she was called. 

From the car window we could see innumerable 
little prairie-dogs scampering to and from their bur- 
rows in the ground. Jack rabbits were plentiful, too, 
and they would jump from under the sage-brush and 
go bounding across the plains. In Wyoming there 
were thousands of antelopes. They were not afraid 
of the train and would come within a few yards of it, 
looking wonderingly out of their great, black, dreamy 
eyes. 

It was the first of December and the air was crisp 
and cold, but the snow was deep only in places. The 
alkali dust came into the train in clouds, chapping our 
hands and faces until they were painful. There was 
not much change in the scenery until we reached Utah ; 
then the country was more broken and there were 
many hills and mountains near the railroad, some of 
which were very peculiar in shape. 

We arrived at Ogden early in the morning. Here 
I left the Overland train and took a narrow-gauge 



332 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

railroad to Salt Lake City, a distance of thirty 
miles. 

After the Mormons were driven out of the Eastern 
states in the forties they turned their faces westward 
under the leadership of Brigham Young, and settled 
in Utah, which was nothing but a wilderness, hundreds 
of miles from civilization. They suffered every kind 
of hardship and privations for the privilege of prac- 
ticing polygamy undisturbed, and this they did for 
many years as it was difficult to reach them and took 
months of hard travel by team to cross the plains be- 
fore the railroad was built. 

I had read how Brigham Young had made the 
wilderness blossom like a rose. Utah, with its pretty 
farm houses and little villages, certainly looked smil- 
ing and beautiful as a new-blown rose on this bright 
December morning after my long journey across an 
unsettled and desolate country. 

Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, is situated two 
miles from Great Salt Lake. It was here the Mor- 
mons first settled and it has been the headquarters of 
the Mormon Church ever since they came to Utah. 
At this time it had only 5000 inhabitants. It was 
pleasantly situated, not far from the mountains. One 
of the many curious things about it and one that at- 
tracted the attention of strangers, was the way the 
water was distributed over it. It came from springs 
high up in the mountains and ran through open 
wooden troughs along the sides of the streets. These 




Copyright, 1901, The Johnson Co., Salt Lake City. 

Brigham Young and His Wives 



CALIFORNIA— AND HOME OF MORMONS 333 

troughs were sunk in the ground until they were level 
with the streets. The water was as clear as crystal 
and sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight as it 
rushed along, for most of the streets were quite 
sloping. 

The hotels were the Townsend House, under the 
management of Mormons, and the Walker House, 
under the management of Gentiles. I stopped at the 
latter but regretted that I did not go to the Mormon 
house, as it was much the better. As soon as I had 
tidied up and put on one of my smartest gowns, I 
went to call on Brigham Young, the famous Mormon 
leader, who had nineteen wives and was reputed to 
have sixty children. However, I met people there who 
declared this was an exaggeration and that he was not 
the father of more than half this number. As far as 
any one knew he lived harmoniously with eighteen of 
his wives. Ann Eliza, his nineteenth wife, gave him 
considerable trouble and he divorced her ; Amelia, his 
favorite wife, lived in a grand mansion by herself, sur- 
rounded by every luxury that money could buy. 

I first went to Mr. Young's residence, the Bee Hive, 
a two-story wooden building with a piazza around it, 
and here I was told that Mr. Young was down at the 
Lion, which appeared to be both a residence and an 
office-building combined. 

I was shown into a small reception room by a serv- 
ant, who took my card to Mr. Young. I had pic- 
tured him in my imagination to be at least six feet tall, 



334 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

with broad shoulders and commanding appearance. 
I was never more astonished in my life. The man 
who entered and walked across the room to where I 
sat was not more than five feet six or eight inches in 
height, with sandy hair slightly gray, a light com- 
plexion and blue eyes; he had very short arms and 
shapely hands as white and dimpled as a baby's. He 
wore a cinnamon brown broadcloth suit; the trousers 
bagged at the knees and looked as if they had been 
worn ever since he came to Utah, as they were quite 
threadbare in places. He had on neither collar nor 
cuffs, but a red bandana handkerchief was knotted 
around his neck. Shaking both of my hands at once, 
he said: " You are the rosiest-cheeked little girl I have 
seen in many a day. How old do you think I am, 
little girl? " he asked. I told him I was not good at 
guessing people's ages but judging from his looks 
and the elasticity of his step I should not think he was 
over thirty years old. This pleased him immensely. 
Laughing heartily he said, " I was seventy-five years 
old my last birthday." Turning around he placed his 
hand on the knob of a door near by. " Now, I am 
going to give you a great surprise," he said, " some- 
thing that I cannot give people every day. I am go- 
ing to introduce you to all of my deacons. We are 
holding a conference to decide upon a place for a new 
Mormon city, as we expect to move to New Mexico 
some time in the near future." I arose and followed 
him into the next room where seated around a lot of 




The Lion House 




The Bee Hive 
Homes of Brigham Young 



CALIFORNIA— AND HOME OF MORMONS 335 

common wooden desks, such as you see in backwoods 
schoolhouses, were, I should say, forty men, the burli- 
est lot of old Westerners I ever remember seeing. Not 
one of them arose as I was introduced to them, but 
they grabbed their great moppy hair to keep it from, 
falling over their faces as they made their bow. I 
concealed my disgust for these men as best I could 
and thanked Mr. Young for the surprise he had given 
me, which it certainly was. 

When I rose to go Mr. Young walked down the 
hall with* me to the door and shook my hand several 
times. He then came out on the steps and again 
shook my hand several times. I then hastened down 
the steps waving him good-by as I did so. He con- 
tinued to bow and bow and bow until I reached the 
street. I had begun to think he was going to ask me 
to be his twentieth wife. 

I then visited the great tabernacle, a wonderful 
building — I know of no other like it. It is oval in 
shape and will seat 12,000 people comfortably. This 
is the meeting place of the Mormons. A pin dropped 
at one end of it can be distinctly heard at the other. 
A person reading in the most ordinary tone of voice 
can be heard in any part of it, the acoustic properties 
are so perfect. Here is a wonderful organ, one of 
the largest in the world. When it is played the vibra- 
tion shakes the great edifice from center to circum- 
ference and it can be heard for many blocks away. 
The temple and other of their notable buildings were 



336 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

only half completed at this time. Since the temple 
was completed a few years ago no one is ever allowed 
to enter it but high Mormon officials, as it contains 
the records and secrets of the Mormon Church. 

As I was wandering about the streets looking at the 
shops and other things that attracted my attention, I 
noticed a restaurant. Seeing it was in charge of a 
woman, I went in and made some inquiries about 
places in the neighborhood I had failed to find. She 
was like all Westerners used to be, and treated me 
more like a friend than a stranger. She insisted that I 
be seated and then sat down beside me. There was 
something attractive about her — she had a beautiful 
complexion and bright black eyes, and she seemed so 
happy I could not help talking to her. 

In the course of conversation she told me that she 
was the daughter of a Mormon and that she had been 
born and brought up in Salt Lake City, and of course 
she had married a Mormon before she was sixteen 
years old ; she said she was the happy mother of eleven 
children, the eldest not yet twenty-three years old. 
She told of the struggles she and her husband had had 
through life to keep the wolf from the door, and how 
she had risen from her bed when her babies were only 
a few days old, for they were not in a position to hire 
help. She said it had been only a little more than a 
year since their circumstances had been changed for 
the better by the death of a relative who had left them 
a small fortune. 




Exterior 




Interior; Showing the Great Organ of 12,000 Pipes 
The Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City 



CALIFORNIA— AND HOME OF MORMONS 337 

Several times while we were talking she would stop 
as if in deep meditation. After one of these thought- 
ful moods she looked up and clasped her hands to- 
gether, her cheeks flushed and her eyes fairly dancing 
with delight, as she said, " We are going to have a 
wedding at our house this week; it is going to be the 
happiest day of my life; my husband is going to be 
married to a girl not yet eighteen." 

" Oh," I said, " how can you tolerate anything in 
him so perfectly horrible ! " 

" My dear woman," she replied, " you were not 
brought up in the Mormon religion or you would 
think very differently about it. I, with all of my 
eleven children, am going to stand up with them, and 
we are going to have a great feast after the wedding 
ceremony. It will bring untold happiness into our 
home, for it was the will of God or it never would 
have happened." 

This she considered such conclusive evidence I said 
nothing more and bade her good day. She went 
about her work humming a tune, thinking only of the 
bright future she was certain was before her. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 

THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 

\ X THEN I turned my face westward again I found 
* * the Overland train exactly like the one I had 
left at Ogden. The passengers, with few exceptions, 
were invalids on the way to California for their health. 
Aside from the wonderful scenery, there was little to 
interest one along the way. The passengers sat on 
the platforms of the cars and visited with each other, 
for this was before the day of observation cars. 

After leaving Ogden we took on no new passengers 
until we reached Reno, Nevada. Here several came 
on board. Among them was Baron Rothschild of 
London, England, who had invested extensively in 
mines in both Nevada and California. He was ac- 
companied by Flood and O'Brien of San Francisco, 
who were partners in the mining business for j^ears 
and who were noted the world over not only for their 
great wealth but for the reckless way they speculated 
and for the amount of whisky they could drink. 

None of the new passengers attracted our attention 
from a single Chinaman who boarded the train here. 
He was a famous gambler of Virginia City, worth 
several millions. Many of the passengers, like my- 
self, had never seen a Chinaman before, as there was 
not one in the Eastern States at that time. We were 

338 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 339 

all thoroughly disgusted at the idea of traveling in the 
Pullman cars with a Chinaman, but it was not until 
the train stopped for dinner that the indignation of 
the passengers was fully aroused. Our Mogul China-» 
man removed all of his gorgeous outer garments and 
came into the dining-room in a long white gown, split 
up the sides like a man's night shirt. His dishabille 
appearance so horrified some of the passengers they 
left the dining-room without finishing their meal, de- 
claring lasting vengeance against the railroad com- 
pany for allowing Chinamen to travel first class or to 
eat in the dining-rooms with first class passengers. 

The Reno passengers brought quantities of fleas 
into the cars. They tormented us Easterners terribly. 
We sat up in our berths all night fighting them while 
these Westerners slept soundly. We were glad 
enough this would be our last night on the train. 

When daylight came the earth was fresh and green, 
the sun rose bright and warm and everything seemed 
cheerful; we were in the land of fruit and flowers. 
The first large city was Sacramento. Hacks were 
waiting for the passengers and well-dressed people 
were standing on the platform at the station. It 
looked like civilization again ; we had seen nothing like 
this since we left Omaha. The train stopped long 
enough at the station for us to buy up all the flea- 
powder the booth-keepers had in stock. These pests 
kept getting thicker and thicker all the time, Cali- 
fornia was a perfect hotbed for them. 



340 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

There were frequent showers during the forenoon. 
Sometimes it was so dark the train would slow down 
to a walking pace. Our next long stop was at Stock- 
ton, where we had dinner. The attraction there was 
an enormous, savage grizzly bear weighing more than 
500 pounds, in a wooden cage. The passengers 
bought quantities of food and fed him. 

I changed cars at Niles, fifty miles east of San 
Francisco, and went to San Jose, where I was met by 
my friend, and former school teacher, Mrs. C. S. 
Kendall whose husband was once President of Lom- 
bard College at Galesburg, Illinois. As we were 
leaving the train we saw near by more than an acre of 
ground covered with Chinamen washing out of doors. 
They sloshed the clothes up and down in the tubs in- 
stead of rubbing them on a board. These were the 
first Chinese laundrymen I had ever seen. 

My room at the hotel had been engaged some days 
before my arrival. I was not a little surprised to find it 
fitted up for a sick person, as I was one of the health- 
iest young girls that ever went to California. When 
I inquired at the hotel office why it was furnished in 
this way, I was told that nearly all the people who 
came from the States were invalids, and it saved both 
time and trouble to get things ready before they ar- 
rived. (All the country east of Omaha was States, 
while all west of it was territories, with the exception 
of California, at this time). I found all the hotels 
similarly arranged wherever I went. They all re- 







o 
o 

§ 



O 



^ 



5i 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 341 

sembled hospitals, and people were sick and dying in 
them all the time. 

I was delighted with San Jose ; it was such a flower 
garden. The dwellings were plain but large and com- 
fortable. The grounds around them were like parks 
and full of all kinds of flowers. On every piazza 
hung a knife or a pair of shears and all who wished 
bouquets were expected to help themselves. Gera- 
niums and rose-bushes grew like trees and were often 
as high as the houses. In some of the yards were rose- 
bushes with six or seven different kinds of roses 
grafted on them, and all in full bloom. Roses were 
often as large in circumference as tea saucers and 
rosebuds were as large as medium-sized hens' eggs. 

Vines grew profusely and to a great size. Even 
smilax, which is so fine and delicate with us, was a 
great coarse-looking vine. Vegetables, like the flow- 
ers, grew to an enormous size, one potato would 
make a meal for six or seven people. Pumpkins and 
squashes were often about three feet long and com- 
paratively large in diameter. I saw strawberries eight 
of which weighed a pound. This phenomenal growth 
was due to the method of farming by irrigation and 
fertilization and a favorable climate which permits 
things to grow the year around. 

Mrs. Kendall and I went to Sacramento for the 
holidays. I was disappointed in the capital of Cali- 
fornia. It was so low and flat and none of its streets 
were paved, and its 20,000 inhabitants waded around 



342 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

in the mud and water of one of the rainiest winters 
ever known in California. I saw a stage and six 
horses go nearly out of sight in the mud within two 
blocks of the State House. There were many large, 
costly buildings, for even then Sacramento was a 
wealthy city, but they looked out of place with their 
surroundings. 

Most of the buildings were built of wood, as they 
were all along the coast of California, on account of 
the frequency of earthquakes. While we were seated 
at our Christmas dinner all the dishes on the table 
began to jingle like little bells. The Calif ornians 
exclaimed "Earthquake!"; there were three light 
shocks, quite a novel sensation to me, as I had never 
experienced one before. 

Among the guests at the dinner table was a youth- 
ful bridal couple. In the course of the conversation 
I learned that they had both been married and 
divorced twice that week, and their present marriage 
was their third venture. Divorces, like marriage 
licenses, could be had there in those days by simply 
asking for them and paying the fee required by law 
for issuing them. It did not hurt the reputation of 
either a man or woman to be divorced six or seven 
times. San Francisco led the world in the number of 
divorces. Every morning the newspapers published 
at least a column and a half headed " Long Division." 
People were still leading fast lives but nothing as 
they led when California's golden days were at their 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 343 

height. There was not a gathering of any kind where 
both men and women did not drink liquor and were 
not more or less intoxicated. The women were dressed 
on the streets showily and wore very long trains. 
They never held them up nor appeared to have any 
concern about them, for they were afraid if they did 
someone would think they did not own a gold mine. 
The smallest coin in circulation was the twenty-five- 
cent piece. The wealthiest people took nothing less 
in change than one dollar. Nickels and dimes have 
circulated in California for only a few years, and I 
believe cents never have. 

From Sacramento we went to Watsonville, as Mrs. 
Kendall had been appointed principal of the Watson- 
ville school. Late one night we were awakened by 
our bed rolling out from the wall fully three feet. 
We thought burglars were in the house, but hearing 
people screaming on the streets we looked out of the 
window to see nearly all the town in their night cloth- 
ing in a little park near the hotel. There had been 
two severe earthquake shocks, and while we were 
standing by the window there was a third. Four 
years before there had been several earthquakes, dur- 
ing one of which a bottomless pit was opened near the 
town and all the glass in the windows broken and the 
chimneys knocked down. 

We did not find our quarters at the hotel pleasant, 
so Mr. and Mrs. Porter, who were one of the first 
families in Watsonville, offered us a home with them, 



344 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

which we were glad to accept. Their house was large 
and like the majority of the dwellings in California 
was built of wood, painted white, and all of the win- 
dows that were exposed to the sun were bays. These 
windows were for years used to heat the houses, for 
fuel of all kinds was very scarce and expensive before 
coal was discovered. 

All the Porters' servants were Chinamen — they 
were the only servants in California until the Chinese 
were excluded from the United States. " Non " had 
been with them a month when we went there to live, 
assisting the cook and waiting on the table. He was 
apt for a sixteen-year-old boy who had not been out 
of China a year and could speak and understand 
a considerable amount of English. One evening Mrs. 
Porter planned to have a dinner party and Non told 
her he and the cook would get up a dinner that would 
be the envy of every Chinese cook in Watsonville. 
He cut half the flowers in the yard and trimmed up 
the house and dining-room with them. They were 
woven into many fanciful designs and stuck in all 
kinds of outlandish places. It was all so novel they 
were left just where he put them for the amusement 
of the guests. When the time came for the dinner 
and we were seated at the table Non made his appear- 
ance as usual in his long white tunic to wait upon us. 
He was so elated over the dinner he was about to 
serve he stepped around with a very pompous air. 
He had such a flimsy, sickly, little queue, it did not 




© 



^ 






^ 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 345 

have more than half-a-dozen hairs with some rusty 
black silk braided in with them. His hair was so thin in 
front he could not keep it in place and it stood out in 
a fringe around his forehead giving him a wild fright- 
ened look. 

When he passed the soup he did it with a flourish. 
It looked appetizing and was of a deep, yellowish 
color, but when we tasted it the guests looked at each 
other in blank astonishment. The perspiration fairly 
started on our faces in our effort to conceal our dis- 
gust for it. Non, seeing it did not please us, picked 
it up with the same flourish and bore it to the kitchen. 
Then came the fish, which had a yellowish substance 
sprinkled over it that we supposed was hard boiled 
eggs; but, oh, such a taste! It was worse than the 
soup. Mrs. Porter arose from the table and fairly 
flew to the kitchen to find out what had been put into 
the food. She soon returned and told us that while 
the cook had gone to the grocery store for something 
he needed Non had chopped up three bars of common 
laundry soap and mixed it with the dinner, thinking 
it would give it a superior flavor. She said the cook 
was fairly beside himself about it. 

When Mrs. Porter went to look for Non he had 
gone and we never saw him again. It was so ridic- 
ulous we all laughed heartily over it and were quite 
as well satisfied as if we had eaten a hearty dinner. 

The Chinese were allowed unbounded liberty and 
often settled in the wealthiest neighborhoods. Wat- 



646 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

sonville's Chinatown was within two blocks of the best 
residence street. The eternal clatter they kept up 
night and day with their weddings, funerals, New 
Year's celebrations and the great number of fire- 
crackers they were constantly firing to keep the devil 
out of their town was almost intolerable; however 
nothing was ever done about it. 

The Chinese, who are natural-born gamblers, found 
California a fruitful field, as gambling was carried on 
by all classes of people openly, there being no laws 
against it. The Chinese gamblers were in cliques 
and they often disagreed among themselves, and there 
were many bloody frays in Chinatown, one of which 
I saw. A number of them were sitting playing at 
cards when something took place they did not like. 
They all jumped to their feet, screaming like a lot of 
demons. In a flash one man's head was cut off and 
another was stabbed to death. In a few minutes the 
dead bodies had disappeared and the murderers were 
never captured. Women were still brought from 
China for evil purposes. They made a fearful state 
of things, for they were thick in all the towns, and 
there was great rejoicing when a few years later the 
same companies that brought them over were com- 
pelled to take them back to China. 

If there were any laws against the sale and use of 
opium they were not enforced as they are now. Every 
ship that came from China brought quantities of it, 
and the Chinese smoked it everywhere. There was 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 347 

not a thing in the whole length and breadth of the 
State that did not smell of it. I went one day to the 
Chinese laundry where my washing was done to find 
out why my clothing smelt so of opium, and the sight 
I saw made me sorry I ever had gone. At a long 
table stood a dozen or more Chinamen over a large 
pile of clothes ; they were sprinkling them preparatory 
to ironing. They filled their mouths full of water, 
then squirted it through their noses over the clothes. 
Some of them had catarrh and other nasal troubles 
and I thought my clothes ever afterward smelt of 
many things besides opium; but there was no way 
out of it as Chinamen were the only servants in the 
country. 

Watsonville, like all the other towns, was lively, 
and there were all kinds of entertainments. The 
ladies had their choice of escorts as there were about 
ten men to every woman, as was true everywhere in 
California. When a lady was invited to an enter- 
tainment, if she had no gown suitable to wear she 
simply made the fact known to the gentleman who 
had invited her and he was only too glad to provide 
her with one. 

I had a great deal of staging to do for only a few 
of the railroads in the State were completed. The 
stages were modeled after the old overland stages and 
were lumbering, rickety vehicles. The horses were 
Spanish ponies ; they were very ill-natured and would 
get to fighting, kick all their harness off and delay us 



348 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

for hours. The stage drivers were rough, drunken 
fellows and one always felt thankful at the end of the 
journey that he had escaped with his life. One of the 
hardest day's staging I did was from Watsonville to 
Santa Cruz, a distance of thirty miles. It had been 
raining for weeks and the roads were bottomless. 
Our stage and eight horses sunk in the mud five or six 
times and we were from six in the morning until late 
at night on the trip. 

Santa Cruz was considered an ideal seaside resort 
and most of the wealthiest San Franciscans had their 
summer homes here. The hotel, like those in the other 
towns, was not very comfortable. 

California has a peculiar climate ; when it is melting 
hot in the sun it is extremely chilly in the shade, and I 
found sitting in bay windows to keep warm with it 
cloudy and raining half the time not a very pleasant 
experience and often had hard colds in consequence 
of the hotels being without heat. 

At the hotel in Santa Cruz I met Mr. and Mrs. 
John Alexander Day and their son, Master John 
Harold Day, of Boston. I had first encountered 
them on the Overland train and was amused to find 
them here. Of the people I met on this journey none 
afforded so much enjoyment to everybody as the Day 
family. 

No matter how often Mrs. Day spoke to her hus- 
band she would first take a long breath, then in a 
highly dramatic way she would say, " John Alexander 



, ' - ' . ' * ■ 







An American Indian of the West 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 819 

Day." When Mr. Day addressed his wife he would 
bow his head in an apologetic manner and would call 
her, " Eliza Jane Day." This was the source of much 
suppressed laughter and the couple were soon known 
among the passengers as " John Alexander and Eliza 
Jane." However, most of us sympathized with Mr. 
Day ; he was one of the meekest and most unassuming 
little men imaginable, and could have traveled the 
world over without attracting anyone's notice for he 
sat quietly in the corner of his seat with his soft felt 
traveling-hat pulled down over his eyes industriously 
reading paragraphs from papers, magazines and 
books which his wife had marked for him, never read- 
ing beyond the marking without first asking her if she 
thought it best for him to read farther. His whole 
manner was as if he would rejoice if the side of the 
car or the floor would open so that he might escape 
from the gaze of the people. 

According to Mrs. Day's story, her husband's rela- 
tives came originally from the North of Ireland, but 
had lived for several generations in America. They 
were not educated according to the Boston standard 
and had no family tree, a fact which she greatly re- 
gretted; but they were all good business people and 
had amassed enough of this world's goods to be com- 
fortable. Master John Harold Day, like his father, 
was retiring in his manner, and had very little to say. 
He spent his time in studying lessons his classical 
mother had prepared for him, or looking over her 



350 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

family tree, as she was anxious for him to know how 
many noble ancestors he was descended from on her 
side of the house. 

Mrs. Day's maiden name was Eliza Jane Penobs- 
kay. She was born and brought up in Boston of 
well-to-do parents who gave her every advantage that 
great educational center affords. She was like the 
traditional Bostonian, very classical, and desired 
everyone to know her dwelling-place and her origin. 
Her eccentricities made the Day family conspicuous 
wherever they went; for I am sure one could travel 
the world over without finding another woman like 
her. She was thin and nearly six feet tall, with a fair 
complexion liberally sprinkled with brown freckles. 
Her hair was fiery red and always frowsy. There 
was something diabolically fascinating about the ex- 
pression of her face ; when she became excited, which 
was often, her scalp would move; she could pull it 
down until it almost reached her nose, then it would 
fly back into place with a bound and her great blue 
eyes would open as if in intense surprise. She had a 
way of throwing up her hands when talking as if she 
wanted you to see she was possessed of twelve fingers 
instead of the usual ten. If she saw they attracted 
your attention she would say, " I see you notice my 
extra fingers; well, I have just as many toes." The 
self-satisfied way she had of speaking of her deform- 
ities excited one's curiosity and made one desire to 
know something about this strange woman's history. 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 351 

It did not require urging or any cunning devices 
to cause her to unfold her rather remarkable career. 
She was proud of it, and fully believed she was 
greatly superior to the rest of womankind. She would 
begin her story by referring to her husband in her 
usual way, as " John Alexander Day." " Not a bad- 
looking man " she would say, " but too small and 
dwarf -like for a woman of my height and fine 
physique. You must have noticed as soon as you saw us 
together that he is plebeian and that I am descended 
from a noble family. On my mother's side we trace 
our ancestry back to William the Conqueror. I in- 
herited my extra toes and fingers from my great- 
great-grandfather, who came to America in that his- 
toric ship, the Mayflower. I am very proud of my 
Puritan ancestors and consider that the purest blood 
I inherit from them is concentrated in my extra 
fingers and toes. Doctors without number have ad- 
vised me to have them amputated, but I never could 
think of it although I have suffered untold agony 
from them, especially from my toes, which are a little 
longer than the others and seemingly are always get- 
ting hurt. Probably I would be Eliza Jane Penobs- 
kay to-day and an active member of the Spinsters' 
Club if it had not been for my extra toes, for they 
brought about my marriage with John Alexander 
Day. 

" I had spent years trying to find someone who 
could make a comfortable pair of shoes for me and it 



352 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

was not until I happened one day to visit the boot and 
shoe establishment of Day & Company that I found 
what I desired. The clerk who waited upon me was 
very discouraging and thought they could do nothing 
for me. While we were talking I noticed a nice look- 
ing little man sitting at a desk examining some papers. 
It seemed he had overheard our conversation for he 
turned around, looked sharply at me, then beckoned 
the clerk to him and told him to send for the head 
boot and shoe maker. After carefully examining my 
feet he said a special last would have to be made for 
me and took a plaster cast of my feet. In less than a 
week I received the shoes and they fitted like a charm. 
I at once set about to find who the little man was 
who had been instrumental in giving me such happi- 
ness. I found that it was John Alexander Day, the 
owner of the establishment. I wrote him a letter of 
thanks and he hastened to call upon me and we were 
soon friends, and in time our friendship ripened into 
love and we were married. He is a wealthy man and 
we live in a fine mansion and have everything that 
heart can wish. 

" Six years of our wedded life were nothing but 
sunshine and happiness. On the sixth anniversary of 
our wedding day we gave a large dinner party. After 
the guests were gone John Alexander Day lay down 
on the lounge and fell asleep. Oh, what do you think 
happened! I can never think of it calmly. If he 
didn't snore loudly enough for one to hear him at the 




2? 






<© 

to 



525 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 353 

top of the roof — something he had never done since 
we were married. I dislike snoring. I can scarcely 
live in the house, or in the neighborhood even, where 
anyone has that disgusting habit. When I told him 
of it he declared, like everyone else who snores, he did 
not do it and I was only dreaming. At any rate, I 
gave him a bed in the back of the house that night and 
the next day carpenters were called in and a room was 
fitted up for him in the garret. I had windows made 
in the roof so when the noise he made grew too terrible 
these windows could be opened to let the inhabitants 
of the stars hear him." 

• Mrs. Day fully believed that snoring is caused by 
what one eats and drinks, so she began to investigate 
her husband's way of living. She knew, of course, 
what his habits at home were, for she was a woman 
who stood at the head of her household, but their 
home was in one of Boston's suburbs and her hus- 
band took his noonday luncheon in the city, so she 
made a visit to the keeper of the restaurant where her 
husband had been a regular customer for years. Here 
she found her husband had been eating two pork chops 
a day for some time. This, she was satisfied, was the 
cause of all their unhappiness. The love of animals 
was a hobby with Mrs. Day and she had made them 
one of her special lines of study for years. She had 
gone so far as to live in tents for nights and days near 
hog pens, cow stables, sheep corrals, in zoological gar- 
dens and menageries, so as to be well versed in the 



85$ NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

sleeping habits of various animals. She said nearly 
all animals dreamed, even the lower orders, and made 
outcries in their sleep, but no animal but the hog was 
a natural-born snorer. She thought if the hog could 
be exterminated it would be the greatest blessing that 
had ever been bestowed upon mankind. 

After consulting several eminent physicians she de- 
cided to take iier husband's case in her own hands, as 
she believed by regulating his diet she would soon be 
able to attain the desired effect. So for breakfast she 
gave him five mouthfuls of lamb, a tablespoonful of 
oatmeal, half a tablespoonful of potatoes, a slice of 
stale bread, one tablespoonful of coffee mixed with 
two of hot water, and over the whole she sprinkled a 
little pepsin. For luncheon he was given four mouth- 
fuls of lamb, one tablespoonful of potatoes, two of 
vegetables, a slice of stale bread and a cup of hot 
water. Dinner was the most amusing part of her 
heroic treatment, not for Mr. John Alexander Day, 
however, but for the guests of the hotel. 

Mrs. Day had a trunk full of old finery very much 
out of style, for it was her belief that everyone should 
wear their old clothes when traveling. Some of her 
gowns looked as if they had come out of the ark. 
Nearly all of them were made of different shades of 
light blue, green and violet velvet, elaborately trimmed 
with bugles and iridescent beads; she always put on 
one of these gorgeous gowns for dinner and looked 
like the elephant-tamer at the grand entry of a circus. 



THE LAND OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS 355 

From the time she entered the dining-room until she 
left it all eyes were upon her. 

When the waiter came to seat them she would throw 
up her hands and exclaim in a voice loud enough to be 
heard in every part of the room, " John Alexander 
Day, don't you eat a mouthful of meat for your 
dinner; you know how it makes you snore. Waiter, 
bring my husband three spoonfuls of weak soup, one 
spoonful of potatoes, two of other vegetables, one 
slice of stale bread and half a cupful of tea filled up 
with hot water." Then they took their seats amid 
shouts of laughter from the guests. 

One evening an editor from one of the San Fran- 
cisco papers was present. He drew an atrocious 
caricature of Mrs. Day and wrote some verses about 
the way she had of curing her husband of snoring. It 
was so humorous one of the guests set it to music and 
sang it for Mrs. Day, but it made no change in her 
whatsoever. She kept right on in the same way re- 
gardless of people's jeers. 

It was from this remarkable woman that I first 
learned to put pockets in my petticoats. They are so 
useful when traveling, especially now when women's 
clothes are pocketless. Her petticoat pockets were of 
the old-fashioned kind, inherited from her great- 
great-grandmothers, and they held nearly a half- 
bushel. They were fastened around the waist by a 
strap or strong cord. It seems that women were more 
to be trusted than they are now for they carried about 



356 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

with them in their pockets all the family secrets, and 
treasury too, for there were no safes or safety deposit 
vaults in those days. What a glorious harvest the 
holdup men would reap if such pockets were fashion- 
able now, for a woman had to walk slowly when her 
pockets were full, as they held nearly a hundred 
articles — at least Mrs. Day's did. 




5?5 



^ 



Ph 



S3 

^3 



CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE 

THE CIRCLE COMPLETE 

FROM Santa Cruz I crossed the Bay in a launch 
to Monterey. When we were about a half mile 
from the shore one of the boatmen showed me some 
Portuguese whale fishermen, who made their head- 
quarters at Monterey. They were out looking for 
whales which were often captured along this part of 
the coast when they came from the north in the winter 
time to the warm southern seas. When we got near 
enough to them so we could see them plainly, we 
noticed that they were greatly excited and were shout- 
ing to each other. We felt sure that they had seen a 
whale ; presently we saw it spouting water and heard 
a shot. A harpoon had been fired from a mortar into 
the whale, which made a desperate effort to get away 
and came near upsetting the fishermen's boats and 
drowning them. Finally, after a struggle lasting 
nearly an hour, it rose to the surface of the water, 
dead. It was more than sixty feet long and looked 
like a little black mountain as it floated about in the 
water. 

This was the first whale I had ever seen and its 
capture was an exciting experience. The fishermen 
soon had the carcass in tow but it was four hours be- 

357 



358 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

fore the tide was high enough to beach it. By this 
time the odor from it was so disagreeable one was 
nauseated by it. The fishermen laughed heartily at 
me for being ill and making a fuss about nothing, as 
they said. Some of them sat on the whale's back flay- 
ing off the blubber with long knives made for the pur- 
pose, while others carried it to the rendering vats. The 
next morning everything in Monterey tasted and 
smelt of it. Not a person at the hotel could eat any 
breakfast and Monterey was two miles from the 
whale. Only a short time before this a dead whale 
had been washed up on the beach opposite Watson- 
ville and although the ocean was six miles away the 
terrible odor made everyone so ill that the carcass had 
to be towed out to sea. 

Monterey had changed little since it was the old 
Spanish capital of California. It was well situated, 
a mile from the ocean, but the town itself was not 
pretty. The houses were built of adobe, one or two 
stories high, and they had a rough, uneven appear- 
ance. The town at that time had 2000 inhabitants, 
most of whom were of Spanish descent. Some of the 
women were very handsome. The country in the 
vicinity of Monterey was charming, but it had a new 
appearance and was thinly settled. The hills back of 
the town were covered with trees to the top. In the 
shady, damp places grew little golden backed ferns, 
as they were called. The front of the leaf was a very 
dark green, while the back was the color of gold. I 




The Bridal Veil 



THE CIRCLE COMPLETE 359 

never saw these ferns growing anywhere else, and 
never have seen one more exquisite. 

The adobe hotel was a quaint old building. It 
would not accommodate more than thirty guests, and 
these were like a big family, for everyone in Cali- 
fornia at this time was hail-fellow-well-met. The 
people were very hospitable to strangers. The prin- 
cipal diversion here was gathering sea-moss. We got 
up at five in the morning and went down to the beach, 
as the choicest moss was washed up on the shore dur- 
ing the night. We put it in bowls of water where it 
spread out like the leaves of a fern, then spread it out 
on sheets of plain white writing paper and put it in 
presses made of thick, bibulous paper to dry. It was 
as delicate and fine as lace and of the most exquisite 
colors, shading from the deepest red to a light pink, 
and sometimes it was pure white. 

We made crosses out of redwood shavings, the na- 
tive wood of California, and pasted them on card- 
board, arranging the moss over and around them in 
many fanciful designs. These made pretty, dainty 
souvenirs to send home to our friends. We also 
gathered star-fish, quantities of which were washed up 
on the beach, and dried them, and we caught little 
horned toads in the woods, a most peculiar little rep- 
tile; these we put in bottles of alcohol to take away 
with us. 

The only way of reaching Southern California was 
by an inferior line of steamers that plied between 



360 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

San Francisco and the seaports on the southern coast. 
It was on one of these steamers, the Mahongo, I 
sailed. It was a rolling old tub and nearly all the 
passengers began to feel queer before we were out of 
the harbor. We had only gone a short way on our 
journey when a storm came up and we were nearly 
shipwrecked. It was the first ocean steamer I had 
ever traveled on and I vowed when I reached San 
Francisco I would never travel on another one, but I 
soon forgot this unpleasantness and in a few months 
sailed for Europe on a big Atlantic liner. We were 
five days in a terrific storm and once I was nearly 
washed overboard. This seemed to harden me to the 
perils of ocean life and I have been traveling ever 
since on all kinds of boats without any fear whatever, 
either of the boats or the weather. 

I was charmed with San Diego, not however with 
the town, as it was inhabited with an undesirable 
mixed population, but with its climate. San Diego is 
on the sea shore not far from the Mexican border, in 
the rainless country, and it is not damp and chilly in 
the winter, as are the more northerly localities. It did 
not become a popular winter resort until the railroad 
was built in Southern California connecting it with 
the Eastern States. Then the splendid Coronado 
Beach Hotel was built; now it accommodates with 
difficulty the visitors who come here every winter. 

Los Angeles and Pasadena are some distance up 
the coast and are twenty-two miles from the ocean. 




Yosemite Falls 



THE CIRCLE COMPLETE 361 

They are so near together they may almost be con- 
sidered one city. When I first saw them they were 
far from being the large, wealthy and popular winter 
resorts they are now. I remember Pasadena as a 
small town with a few one-story houses occupied by 
a peculiar class of people, called greasers, a mixture 
of Spanish and Indians. They were the worst class 
of people in California. The men were vicious and 
frequently committed murder. I disliked to meet 
them on the streets even in the day time, they had such 
ugly countenances. Los Angeles had not more than 
3000 inhabitants. Few of the people were well-to-do 
and the town was not very prosperous. It had only 
one street of any importance ; along it were most of 
the residences, the shops and the hotel. Across the 
street from the hotel was Chinatown and no less than 
five Chinese houses of ill-fame in full view of the 
street. One could hardly look out of the window in 
the day time for the indecent sights seen there. It 
was in the month of February, which is the time of 
year the wild flowers are in bloom here. There were 
thousands of acres of land around Los Angeles that 
were not cultivated, and wherever I went the earth 
was simply carpeted with flowers. One day I took a 
twenty-mile ride to the old San Gabriel Mission. It 
was built by the Spaniards when they owned Cali- 
fornia and is more than 200 years old. Its chime of 
bells came from Spain and is more than 300 years old. 
There were no pictures nor anything to admire about 



362 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

it but its age and history ; however, I saw a sight here 
that was more extraordinary than the Mission. It was 
a Spanish woman 140 years old. Her limbs were so 
weak she could not walk, but otherwise she seemed 
perfectly well; she told me through an interpreter 
that she was happy and pleased that God had seen 
fit to let her live so long. Her eyes alone showed her 
great age; they were bloodshot and had dark circles 
and deep wrinkles around them. She related many 
noted events that she recalled personally in order to 
show that she really had lived to the age claimed for 
her. She could see without glasses and she had not 
only her second sight but her third sight. She sat 
making patchwork and her sewing was neatly done; 
she showed me where she had patched and darned her 
dress. The work could not have been better done by 
anyone. I saw in one of the San Francisco papers 
that she lived to be 146 years old. 

We took another route on the return journey and 
drove through twenty miles of orange groves. It was 
a magnificent sight; the trees were thrifty and were 
fairly breaking down under their load of golden fruit. 
The ground under the trees was covered with oranges 
and men were carrying them to the boxing houses. 
This was before the narrow-gauge railroads were 
built through the groves. The fragrance from the 
blossoms, as orange trees bear fruit and flowers at 
the same time, was so strong it gave me a severe head- 
ache. 




Glacier Point and Half Dome 



THE CIRCLE COMPLETE 363 

Santa Barbara, on the coast above Los Angeles, 
was the only town in Southern California that had 
hotel accommodations for winter visitors. It was 
packed full of people, mostly invalids. This gave a 
gloomy impression of the town although it is one of 
the prettiest places in California. Santa Barbara is 
not as popular now as it used to be and does not have 
as many visitors as Los Angeles. It has natural hot 
baths that come from the boiling springs in the moun- 
tains back of the town and these baths are thought to 
be beneficial for many kinds of diseases. It once had 
the largest grape vine in the world covering nearly 
an acre of ground. The owners of the ground on 
which it grew got to quarreling over it and one of 
them poured hot water around the vine and supposed 
that he had killed it. However, another vine came up 
from the root and this was of a great size when I saw 
it and it was thought that it might grow to be as 
large as the old one if well cared for. 

One of the most beautiful sights I saw in Cali- 
fornia was the almond and English walnut orchards 
in bloom near Santa Barbara. There are hundreds 
of acres in these orchards and when seen from a dis- 
tance they looked like great snow banks with a slight 
tinge of pink through them. 

California has much fine scenery. Some of its high- 
est peaks are covered with snow nearly the year 
around. I did not visit the mountain regions so did 
not see the Yosemite Valley the first time I was here, 



364 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

for the snow was still deep there when I left the coun- 
try the last of May. I did go to see some of the gold 
and silver mines and one quicksilver mine near San 
Jose. After the first experience I did not care for 
them, going down hundreds of feet under the ground 
and wandering around little passageways often too 
low to permit one to stand erect with nothing but the 
light from a small lantern to guide you was often de- 
pressing and gave me a creepy feeling when I thought 
of the tremendous load that hung over my head. 
When I saw the miners at work down there it seemed 
to me there was no worse way of spending one's 
life unless it were serving a life sentence in the peni- 
tentiary. The mining camps were miserable places. 
The miners spent most of their time when above 
ground, as in every mining district, drinking, gam- 
bling and carousing. Their families lived in hovels 
and eked out a miserable existence. 

The big trees of California were another one of 
the extraordinary sights. There is nothing like them 
anywhere in the world. Many of them were more 
than 200 feet tall and where they had been felled the 
stumps were large enough for a quadrille to be danced 
upon them with ease. 

San Francisco was not more than half its present 
size and lacked many of the improvements of modern 
civilization. Skyscrapers and elevators were a curios- 
ity in those days. The Palace, Rolston's famous 
hostelry, which was the best in California, and one of 




Cloud's Rest Trail 



THE CIRCLE COMPLETE 365 

the best in America, had not an elevator in it. If 
one wanted to see California's noted millionaries one 
had but to stop at the Palace for a few days as it was 
always full of these people. The gowns worn by the 
women and the gems worn by both men and women 
were enough to turn the head of a person not accus- 
tomed to such displays of wealth. 

One of the most noticeable women at the Palace 
and one who knew how to wear both her gowns and 
jewels to the best advantage, was Mrs. T. M. Bell. 
She was married to a multi-millionaire who was old 
enough to be her father. After living with him for 
-ten years she left him and he gave her $3,000,000. 
She had a gown made in Paris that cost $10,000 to 
wear her $400,000 set of diamonds with. I be- 
lieve this was the largest value in diamonds she ever 
wore at once although she had a million dollars worth 
of jewels. Her $50,000 diamond earrings were more 
celebrated than any of her other gems. I saw ac- 
counts of them in newspapers the world over. She 
had a girdle that attracted a great deal of attention. 
It was three inches wide and had pointed ornaments 
in the front and back five inches wide. There was not 
a diamond on it that did not weigh a carat and a half, 
and some of them were nearly as large as pigeon's 
eggs. I came from Europe with her on the same 
steamer. She had a little satchel in which she used to 
carry around $500,000 worth of diamonds, which she 
showed me. She was in extremely poor health at that 



366 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

time and many times she used to tell me she would 
give all of her jewels to be well. Her poor health 
was brought on by high-living in California. 

The Lick House was another popular hotel, named 
for its owner, who was many times a millionaire. 
People used to go there to see the dining-room, the 
walls of which were covered to the ceiling with large 
oil paintings and mirrors set in the wall like panels. 
The paintings cost a vast sum of money as they were 
all by noted artists and were scenes in California. 
Ladies who were traveling alone went to the Occi- 
dental Hotel. It was well kept and afterward much 
improved and for many years popular as a ladies' 
hotel. 

At least half of the people lived in lodging-houses 
and took their meals in restaurants. This way of living 
was confined to San Francisco alone. San Fran- 
cisco's parks were rather wild and had a new look as 
they had not been much improved at this time. The 
Seal Rocks and Cliff House were a great sight, as not 
only the rocks but the ocean swarmed with sea lions, 
and there were thousands where there is one now. 
There was a very large reservoir here which had a sea 
lion in it weighing 600 pounds, the largest ever cap- 
tured off the coast of California. It was called " Old 
Ben Butler " after the celebrated general who made 
himself notorious by carrying off the silverware and 
valuables of the people during his campaigns in the 
Southern States. 




- 




CI 

00 



O 



THE CIRCLE COMPLETE 367 

It was the latter part of March, 1903, twenty-seven 
years since I made the trip to California narrated 
here, and I was again in San Francisco and ready to 
return home by the route of the old days. I crossed 
over to Oakland by the ferry and standing on the 
railroad track not far from the landing, was the 
Overland train, a through train as all of the overland 
trains are now, made up of six Pullmans, two bag- 
gage cars and a mail car, drawn by two of the largest 
locomotive engines manufactured in the United 
States. They fairly shook the earth with their 
pent-up fury waiting for the throttles to be opened. 
They speed us at the rate of forty-five or fifty miles 
per hour, and we now accomplish the 2300-mile jour- 
ney to Chicago in a little more than three days from 
the time we leave the coast. 

A young Englishman and his bride came all the 
way from Kobe, Japan, with me on their way to Eng- 
land. They never had been in America before, and 
were greatly pleased with our cars. They went 
through the train, calling it a palace on wheels, and 
saying all sorts of pleasant and complimentary things 
about it. They declared the observation car with its 
magnificent drawing-room was good enough for King 
Edward himself. They admired the dining-room also. 
It was new and very pretty and the food and service 
could not have been better. I enjoyed it myself when 
I thought of the wretched places we ate in when I 
first journeyed over the road and of the buffalo-steaks 



368 NEWEST WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

that were served. The passengers wished then more 
than once when they tried to eat the hard black meat 
that all the buffaloes were dead ; they would not have 
to wish that now, for these animals have become almost 
extinct, only a few being owned by private individuals 
and zoological gardens, in addition to the herds pre- 
served in Yellowstone Park and by the Canadian 
government. 

Marvelous changes had taken place in the country 
all along the railroad. Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and 
Nebraska were no longer territories. It hardly seemed 
possible that in so short a time what was nothing but 
a vast wilderness inhabited mostly by savages, was 
now a well-improved and prosperous country of rich 
farms and flourishing towns. But nowhere did I see 
so great a change as had taken place in Chicago. 
When I left it for my first trip to California there 
were not more than 600,000 inhabitants. Now it is 
twenty miles across and has a population of more 
than two and a half million. 

When I reached my home in Hyde Park I had 
completed my trip around the world, after ten months 
of hard travel. Hyde Park is now a solidly built-up 
district of the city; twenty-seven years ago it was 
nothing but a little village, nearly a day's journey 
from Chicago, and the majority of its inhabitants 
were bullfrogs. 

THE END 



H 2 1908 



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